Cultivating cultures of inclusion in social service organizations: An international collaboration

Abstract

Questions of social exclusion and inclusion in increasingly diverse societies (Vertovec, 2007) are especially thorny in North American and European societies that are undergoing dramatic transformation by over 50 years of large-scale migration, primarily and increasingly from countries in the Global South. In Canada, for example, it is projected that by 2031 almost one-third of the nation’s total population will be a member of a “visible minority” group, and over one-quarter of Canadians will be first-generation immigrants (Caron Malenfant, Lebel, & Martel, 2010). Recent predictions place Canada among the world’s top seven countries to receive international migrants (more than 100,000 annually) between 2015 and 2050 (UNDESA (United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs – Population Division), 2015). In Germany, a growing proportion of the population is firstor second-generation migrants (persons with “migration background”1): 17.1 million residents of Germany live in a family that has a migration background, and 11.5 million of them have experienced migration themselves.2 The situation differs between the 16 Bundesländer. Whereas every fifth person has a so-called “migration background” in the five new Bundesländer, it is every fourth person in the rest of the country. The majority of this population have a German passport (54%). It is widely assumed that the share of the population with a migration background will increase further, as most political parties recognize that the demographic crisis Germany is facing (with its increase in the retirement-age population) can only be solved by actively managing migration.3 As the social and economic diversity of social landscapes deepens, shrinking national social welfare and public health care systems lead to narrower entitlement requirements for noncitizens, tighter eligibility criteria, and reduced benefits (Good Gingrich & Köngeter, 2017). In these social, political, and economic contexts defined by scarcity and insecurity, immigration laws and social programs in many welfare states are geared toward ensuring that newcomers and migrants of the second and third generation are equipped to become contributing members of society rather than a drain on the system. Against this background, social service organizations (SSOs) are often seen, on the one hand, as agents of support, integration, and social change toward a more just society. On the other hand, critical