How has professional and civic social work changed as a result of immigration?

The ProZiS project is led by Prof. Dr. Manuela Westphal at the Institute of Social Work at the University of Kassel and by Prof. Dr. Monika Alisch at the Department of Social Work at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. The research project is interested in the success of diversity in a socio-spatial context and cooperates with the Future Office of the City of Kassel and the Migration Service of the District of Hersfeld-Rotenburg. The Kassel subproject ProZiS is funded by the BMBF with 161,000 euros until March 2020. Ms. Anke Freuwört has been recruited as a research assistant.

The interactions between voluntary and professional social work will be reconstructed. In addition, intercultural contacts will be examined on the basis of tandems of volunteers and immigrants and analyzed in terms of their self-conceptions, friendships and relationships, both individually and in relation to each other. By transferring the results into practice, learning effects for community work are to be worked out. The project will be carried out in both case municipalities in order to include differences between rural and urban social spaces.

In terms of research steps and methodology, the following is planned: To investigate institutional change in social work, guided interviews with professional and volunteer actors will be conducted. Relationships between engaged individuals and immigrants will be captured through narrative-based individual and tandem interviews. The initial results of the project will be processed with various social work actors in group discussions, which in turn will be presented at a nationwide practice conference. The results of the project will be incorporated into guidelines for successful diversity in the municipal as well as local integration process of immigrants.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Manuela Westphal and Anke Freuwört
University of Kassel
Department of Socialization with a focus on migration and intercultural education
Tel.: +49 561 804-2300 and +49 561 804-7725
E-mail: mwestphal[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
ankefreuwoert[at]uni-kassel[dot]de