על קרקע לא יציבה: פרקטיקה בעבודה סוציאלית עם מבקשי מקלט מאריתריאה

Background: Social work with asylum seekers from Eritrea, who have lived in Israel for more than a decade without legal status or rights, is a new field of practice. In light of asylum seekers' exclusion from access to governmental social services, this field has been developed mostly outside the establishment.Aim: To explore and describe the unique characteristics and challenges in social work practice with Eritrean asylum seekers.Method: Based on qualitative research utilizing the Constructivist Grounded Theory approach, 12semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with social workers in specialized services for asylum seekers.Findings: Practice with asylum seekers in Israel is an evolving field, which entails “pioneer" actions of establishing new services utilizing extremely limited resources. Data analysis yielded five main characteristics and challenges: permanent temporariness, ongoing trauma and its implications,increased power-imbalances, a “highly politicized" field, and informality.Conclusions and practice implications: A few similarities can be drawn between practice with asylum seekers and with other marginalized clients. Nevertheless, practice with asylum seekers presents unique challenges. These stem from the political dimension of working in an environment where policies exist that limit asylum seekers ability to exercise most of their rights, the ongoing trauma which characterizes their lives in Israel, and the prevailing negative public attitude towards them and those that assist them. Based on an anti-oppressive perspective, I offer implications for training, supervision, and practice with asylum seekers in Israel, while emphasizing the need tointegrate micro and macro practice