“Do the right thing”: Immigrant perspectives of social worker support in the United States

Abstract

Social workers play a distinctive role in serving all communities, especially immigrants. Heightened immigrant stress and deteriorating well-being have been reported amid recent anti-immigrant socio-political climate. Given the unique challenges of immigrants, they have distinct needs. In our study, we utilize data from a larger study including a sample of first- and second-generation immigrants, to understand “How can social workers support immigrant communities?” In total, N = 265 participants responded to this prompt. We employed a content analysis approach to analyze participant responses. Our analysis yielded four main themes: (1) Resources for immigrants, (2) Doing right by immigrants, (3) Advocacy, and (4) Understanding immigrants. Our findings are timely in highlighting the diverse perspectives about immigrant needs in the current socio-political climate. Study findings have implications for social workers as well as service providers/agencies that engage with immigrants.