What’s in a Word? Immigration

By Al Murdach

This column examines some key words of interest to social workers and tries to explore their meanings and ramifications for current social work practice. The word for today is: immigration.

Social work has been involved with immigrants and the issue of immigration from the beginnings of the profession. Jane Addams and other settlement house leaders welcomed the newcomers to this country and tried to help them feel at home in the great cities in which they congregated. Other early social workers, not always pleased with the new arrivals, expressed the less sanguine attitudes of the general population. In 1904 Robert Hunter wrote: “Within the last decade, new swarms of European immigrants have invaded America… These immigrants, largely of the Slavonic race, come from a lower stratum of civilization … and are probably less improvable… There seems to be a danger that if they continue to come in large numbers they may retain their own low standard of decency and comfort, and menace … the working class generally …”

These conflicting attitudes, on the one hand welcoming and treasuring the immigrant, and on the other regarding the immigrant with hostility and suspicion, have been characteristic attitudes about immigrants for most of our history, though more influenced by local economic and political conditions than by the immigrants themselves.

Social work involvement with immigrants and immigrant programs continued to grow steadily in the early part of the Twentieth Century and increased markedly during and after World War I. During this time, the profession attempted to help bridge the gap between those citizens who were favorably disposed toward immigrants and those who were fearful and mistrustful of their presence by instituting a number of “Americanization” programs throughout the country. These programs sought to help immigrants better assimilate to American culture and institutions by speeding up their involvement in various language, educational, and social activities. A leading spokesperson for this movement was social worker Frances A. Kellor, who was eventually recognized for her efforts by the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.

This focus on aiding the immigrant to adapt to our culture rather than bending our ways somewhat to fit the needs of immigrants faded a bit during the years of the Great Depression, when the attention of social workers was captured by the dire economic condition of the country and focused on staffing and developing income support programs for the millions who were displaced or thrown into poverty.

When economic conditions began to improve, the Civil Rights Movement and the associated efforts to recognize the needs of marginalized and oppressed minorities burst upon the social scene and energized social workers to move in new, and even more uncharted, directions. Such currents of energy also had a major impact on the conditions of immigrants and their plight in this country. Immigrant groups began to push for recognition of their rights and boldly seek a bigger portion of the American pie.

Americanization programs were gradually replaced by programs that sought to stress immigrant pride in their own cultures and traditions while seeking legal remedies to gain better paths to citizenship and lessened discrimination in schools and in the workplace. Social workers have adapted to these current trends by championing immigrant rights, protections for the many undocumented in our country, and securing aid to refugees from overseas. All of these interventions illustrate the profession’s current response to the “new face” of immigration in this country.

Today social work is only one of many organized efforts to improve the lot of immigrants in our nation. Although no longer a major player in this effort, its current stress on the importance of “cultural competence” and ethnic sensitivity in social work practice shows that it is still committed to helping all who come to this country see that they too can become “united” with all of us in seeking a better life and the advancement of democratic values.