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Refugees And Refugee Populations

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Targeted Populations Assignment

Given the current political climate in the United States, there has been an increased need for social workers who have experience in working with individuals and families who are considered to be immigrants or refugees. In the past decade, international conflicts, social oppression and civil wars have generated 16 million refugees worldwide, with “approximately 500,000 refugees being resettled in the United States” (Kira and Tummala-Narra, 2014, p. 449). According to current research, 82% of the increase in population between the years of 2005 to 2050 will be attributed to immigrants arriving in this time (Chang-Muy and Congress, 2015, p. 71).
As part of the ethical responsibilities of a social worker, advocacy on the behalf of clients is something that needs to be emphasized when working with immigrant and refugee populations. There have been a significant amount of legislative changes that have been made on both the federal and state levels within the past ten years, such as the recent ninety day ban of individuals coming from 7 “predominantly Muslim nations” (Healy, 2017, p. 247). A significant amount of the work that is done by social workers with refugee individuals and families takes place either in temporary settings with limited resources following “armed conflicts and ethnic-cleansing events” (Soliman and Gillespie, 2011, p. 789).
When working with individuals and families who are considered to be refugees, it is important to

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