Working in the field of human services requires the practitioners to be more than outgoing as it is inevitable to interact much with people in their day to day roles. This field of career involves serving and helping people in their needs. For instance, my career as an immigrant social worker consists of assisting the immigrants to cope with life in their new country. As a social worker in my field, one is supposed to seek proper training and experience that is necessary to ensure effectiveness in working with culturally diverse groups of people. It is also essential to have a good understanding of things that evolve from the self that can personally hinder one's effectiveness in delivering quality services.
As an immigrant social worker, it is essential to know and understand the rights of immigrants so that one can be able to protect them and act professionally. The government oversees the rights and liberties of immigrants, and therefore, an immigrant social worker has to ensure immigrants are protected from exploitation. Among several immigrants’ rights, some are discussed in this essay. Immigrants have the right to privacy and confidentiality. Social workers are supposed to keep any information they receive from their clients, whether written, oral, or electronic private. They are not allowed to reveal the information to the third party. An exception of this right is when the service provider learns that such confidentiality would cause significant harm to the clients or others. An example of this instance is where a service provider learns that his or her client owns explosives such as bombs, which could harm other innocent people. Immigrants have the right to safety and security. Service providers are entrusted with protecting any danger or harm that immigrants may be exposed to. If a social worker suspects that a particular behavior from a client may result in risk or damage to them, he or she is supposed to hinder it (Menjívar & Lakhani, 2016). The social worker may even be forced to break the right to confidentiality or seek further consultations protecting them. Immigrants also have the right to be protected against discrimination. It is the responsibility of social workers to ensure that their clients are not discriminated against in services such as education and health care. Social workers should also ensure that they provide their services without discrimination to gender, age, race, religion, ethnicity, or nationality.
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Everyone has a set of different values, beliefs, and attitudes that may hinder good relationships and interaction with others if not well taken care of. These three aspects of life can affect the quality of services delivered by social a worker in their work of helping immigrants. For instance, Christian social work may find it hard to cope with a client who is a Muslim because of religious differences. In which both of them holds different values, beliefs, and attitude regarding one's religion. Another aspect that may arise is that of cultural differences, which involves the way of doing things. For example, a client may encounter a social worker who values artistic beauty like drawings of tattoos while on the other hand, the client believes that symbols are demonic. This difference will, therefore, definitely affect their relationship and hence, services delivered.
One of the best ways a social worker can develop awareness, knowledge, and skills needed to support diverse groups is first, by exploring their values, beliefs, and attitudes that they hold. After self-evaluation, service providers are required to be aware of the impact that may have on their clients if not taken care of. Again, they should know that it is not right to impose one's beliefs, values, and attitudes on clients since this help in building their relationships.
Living among people of different cultures is the best way to understand and experience them well. Therefore, traveling and touring across the world is an excellent way of understanding diversity and opening up to new cultures. Participating in international cultural events helps to learn how different people do things in their place. Creating new friends through networking will also help one have a clear picture of diversity, and help to understand people.
When working with people who are from different cultures, some ethical considerations may arise, that require one to act professionally. For instance, a social worker may be working for a client who he or she realizes is suffering from infectious diseases like Tuberculosis. The social worker may find it difficult deciding between disclosing the information as it is dangerous, living with such a person or whether to go with the client's right to privacy and confidentiality.
Multi-cultural Competence Plan
1. Understanding one's one culture, and that of others is important as the world is becoming diverse in all aspects. Some of the steps I would follow in understanding culture are discussed below.
1. Make friends in your community
Making friends in my neighborhood with people who I share cultures with and those from different cultures is good. It is a beautiful way of helping me understand different lifestyles by sharing experiences of life and how our culture differs.
2. Participate in cultural experiences
Taking part in cultural holidays and events that come up in my community gives me a way of understanding different cultures (Schneider & Heath, 2018). On such occasions; I would meet with people from across many cultures and share experiences that will help me in understanding my culture better as well as that of others.
3. Travel across the country and abroad
Whenever I get an opportunity to travel to other places, it is another chance to learn more about cultures. Such opportunities may include exchange programs that take place in churches, schools, or the community.
2. The underlying assumptions that I have their minds may have negative or positive effects on diversity.
For instance, in Arab culture, it is culturally acceptable for male friends to hold hands. Therefore, seeing two male friends holding hands, I could conclude that they are in a romantic relationship and term them as gays.
Another example is that I believe all Russians are aggressive, and therefore whenever I see a Russians, I would assume they are trouble makers.
3. In preparing to work with people from other cultures, I would ensure that I understand my own culture well, as well as the culture of other people. I would be respectful to other people's perceptions and ensure I establish a good relationship with them. I would also ensure that I don't impose my cultural values on other people and keep them out of our relationships.
4. If my colleagues or peers need to address diversity issues with me, I would accept and listen to their problems. We would then discuss the issues one on one, as I try to politely make them understand the importance of understanding different cultures and respect them.
5. If a peer or family needs to discuss with me any culturally insensitive comments, or statements made on them, I would be free to discuss it with them. I would listen to their concerns and explain to them the reason for such comments or statements without offending them.
6. To build my multi-cultural competency, I will read journal articles, academic books, novels, and documentaries, which will help me get knowledge of different cultures.
7. In building my multi-cultural competency, I would watch documentaries that represent diverse cultures and celebrates different cultures. Such documentaries would help me in getting much knowledge concerning customs.
References
Menjívar, C., & Lakhani, S. M. (2016). Transformative effects of immigration law: Immigrants’ personal and social metamorphoses through regularization. American Journal of Sociology, 121(6), 1818-1855.
Schneider, S. L., & Heath, A. F. (2018). Uncovering ethnic and cultural diversity in Europe: A new classification of ethnic and cultural groups.
