Social work and the marginalized urban environment

An increasing number of people are leaving their countries of origin because of climate change, wars, ethnic conflicts, and political instability to find better living conditions in other countries.

Some of migrant families succeed to immigrate to western countries such as Sweden and dwell in marginalized urban areas.

This harms these individuals and families more than others since many of those belong to ‘big families’ bearing the responsibility for those members of the family who have been left in their countries of origin or stranded in refugee camps.

The changing political landscape, the retreat of the Swedish welfare state and unemployment among marginalized groups hinder their integration and reduce theirpossibilities to help family members in other countries.

This leads often to increasing social problems in marginalized areas that directly influences the Swedish traditionally organized social work, which lacks adequate knowledge and practical methods for working with social problems in marginalized urban areas.

This conference will bring together researchers, educators, and social workers to discuss how research-based knowledge about marginalized people and marginalized urban areas can help to develop social work education and practical methods to help marginalized groups and reduce social problems in marginalized urban milieus.