The dual practice of social and registered migration agent work: a heuristic study

摘要

Social work and registered migration agent work can be mutually enhancing. Both can be influenced by a critical theory approach within the global context of neo-liberal philosophies and related practices. My practice in both is enriched by my use of my imagination. My thesis emerges from remembered and familiar voices – my own, those of people (clients) who have trusted me as social worker and as migration and refugee law advocate, voices of 21 of my peers and of those of writers and thinkers. The qualitative heuristic approach taken to research my dual professions allowed me to make important discoveries, especially for social work practice and, in a more limited way, for registered migration agent work. I identify and start to fill metaphorical theme ‘pots’ common to both professions: of human violence, of human rights, of justice and social justice, of the age old phenomenon of human migration, of cross-cultural communication amongst humans, and of the professions of social work and migration and refugee law advocacy. In the process, I discover a host of additional themes, including those of borders and boundaries, of citizenship, of civil engagement, of compassion, of globalization and cosmopolitanism, of memory, of passion, and more. The case study I choose allows me and two of my Burmese clients to illustrate some of the depth and breadth of this rich dual practice.