the state as party to child maltreatment - lessons from research on the impact of direct provision...
TRANSCRIPT
9th BASPCAN Congress 2015: “New Directions in Child Protection and Well-being: making a real
difference to children’s lives”
The State as party to child maltreatment- lessons from Research on the impact of Direct Provision on
children of asylum seekers in IrelandDr. Colletta Dalikeni,Lecturer in Social Care Work DKIT
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Background to the ResearchNumber of Asylum Applications Received in
Ireland per year 1992-2013
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Questions addressed by the Research
(1)What were the experiences of child protection social workers of working with asylum seeking families?
(2)What were the experiences of asylum seeking families of working with child protection social workers?
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Research Methodology: Qualitative Approach –Action Research
REVISED PLAN
PLAN
ACT AND OBSERVE
ACT AND OBSERVE
REFLECT
REFLECT
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Research Methodology Overall orientation of the research was Action
Research Data collection method: Biographic Narrative
Interpretive Method(BNIM) Thematic analysis was used to analyse data Sample size: In total, twenty people were
interviewed,10 social workers [all Irish] 10 family members Family members originated from Nigeria, DRC Congo,
South Africa. Research Limitations: Not representative
Single Question aimed at inducing narrative(SQUIN)
SQUIN for Social Workers : “As you know, I am interested in the experiences of child protection social workers who have worked with refugees or asylum-seeking families. Can you please tell me the story of your intervention with the X family? I am interested in all the events and experiences that were important to you personally. I will listen first, I will not interrupt. I will just take some notes in case I have any questions when you have finished. Please take the time you need. We have got about 1-2 hours or more if need be. I will tell you if we are running out of time. Please begin wherever you like.”
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Single Question aimed at inducing narrative(SQUIN)
SQUIN for families: “As you know, I am interested in the experiences of asylum seeking families of working with child protection social workers…. Can you please tell me the story of your intervention with social worker K? I am interested in all the events and experiences that were important to you personally. I will listen first, I will not interrupt. I will just take some notes in case I have any questions when you have finished. Please take the time you need. We have got about 1-2 hours or more if need be. I will tell you if we are running out of time. Please begin wherever you like.”
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Research Findings: Themes which Emerged from Social Workers’
Narratives1. Trust/Mistrust2. Age Assessment3. Immigration/Direct Provision 4. Cultural Differences5. Communication- Linguistic Issues6. Racism7. Legal concerns and cultural practices8. Empathy and the impact of personal experiences on practice9. Training10. Interagency collaboration11. Resources12. The Role of the Social Worker
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Research Findings:Themes which Emerged from Families’
Narratives
1. Trust/Mistrust2. Immigration3. Isolation and Lack of support Network4. Impact of Direct Provision on parenting5. Parenting in Direct Provision 6. Deportation7. Cultural Differences8. Language and Communication9. Racism10. Legal Concerns and Cultural Practices
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Direct Provision: A recipe for Disaster
Photos from www.irishtimes.com/news/lives-in-limbo -Images taken by asylum seekers of their living conditions in the Direct Provision System-To see more visitwww.asylumarchive.co
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Lives in Limbo Short 6 minute video clip made by the Irish
Times with asylum seekers living in Direct Provision and released online in August 2014
Words: Carl O'Brien. Additional reporting by Sinéad O'Shea.Video & Photography: Bryan O'BrienDesign, Graphics & Production: Paul Scott
Link to video clip https://vimeo.com/110572996
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Direct provision System Direct provision system ‘set up in 2000 for people claiming asylum,
Initially the system was only intended to house applicants for six months. Those interviewed as part of this study had been in the system between 5-7 years
Prior to 1999, asylum-seekers were able to avail of mainstream social welfare entitlements such as housing allowance and maintenance allowance and were thus not treated differently to others dependent on the State for support.
Asylum-seekers receive an allowance of €19.10 each week per adult and €9.60 per child, a rate that has not changed since the system was introduced over 15 years ago.
The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA)was established in 2001 by the Dept of Justice to oversee the system of Direct Provision. 12
Children in Direct provision At present, more than one third of residents in Direct
Provision centres are children, many of them born in Ireland or very young when they first enter the system,
Their formative developmental years being spent in a form of institutionalised living.
Presently this group of children seems to fall outside of the State’s concern.(Hiqa, the children’s ombudsman remit not extended to children of asylum seekers.
At the end of March 2012, there were 5,098 residents in Direct Provision. 1,789 of these, or 35 per cent, were children under the age of 18 13
Direct provision- The Cost Irish Times (Dec 2014)
Direct Provision provided by private contractors in hostels, hotels, convents, bed and breakfasts and mobile homes.
In all, there are 17 firms which receive about €50 million a year to run 34 accommodation centres across the State, providing for about 4,000 asylum seekers (Irish Times Dec 2014)
A recent publication by the Irish Times show that many are highly profitable and have recorded six or even seven-figure pre-tax profits.
Further revelations by the Irish times also show that some larger companies have moved to shield their accounts from public scrutiny by creating unlimited companies, often with parent firms in off-shore jurisdictions
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Direct Provision/Immigration: Social Workers /Families themes
SOCIAL WORKERS
FAMILIES
Experiences of working with families in direct provision
Experiences of working with families who are subject to deportation ordersExperiences of child protection and Immigration Services
Experiences of possible deportation
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Social Worker: On Direct Provision
“I see the whole concept of direct provision centres and the restrictions put on people as crazy. Those people have no rights to anything in the asylum process. They can’t work. They are not entitled to benefits. All they get is 19 euro a week. But some of these are qualified people who have skills to offer, who are willing, able and would like to work.”
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Social Worker On Direct Provision
“It is institutional life. It’s bad for children; it’s bad for the families and definitely would drive anybody crazy. Even for those without mental health problems, I say they get them from the kind of life, waiting in limbo for a decision that takes forever.”
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Family Member: On Direct Provision “Being in the asylum system is like your life ‘is on hold’. You
can’t go anywhere or anything, only sit and wait. I have been here for the past 5 years waiting for a decision on my asylum application. I am grateful to have a roof over my head and it is safe here for me and my children. They try to help me. I mean, I don’t owe these people anything; it is even good for them to look after me and my children but this place is like a prison. It was okay for 2 months, 4 months, but when I realised I was going to be here for a year or more I started to feel very lonely. It is like you are in prison.”
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Family Member: On Direct Provision
“It is hard to get to know the people in the camp. You have to be very careful because even if they are from your own country, they could be from the dangerous part and you could put yourself in the same danger you are fleeing away from; so you have to be careful.”
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Family Member on Direct Provision
“I started to feel as if I was going crazy in my head, I was thinking about my other children I had left [at] home. My brother had been killed and I was wondering if I would ever see my older children again. I had no other way of contacting them.”
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Parenting in Direct Provision: Reflection
Research has emphasised difficulties of parenting in direct provision for both children and adults, IRC, 2001; Integrating Ireland Children’s Rights Alliance 2009) Arnold, S.K. (2012) State sanctioned child poverty and exclusion. The case of children in state accommodation for asylum seekers AkiDwA (2013) Concern Over African Children in State Care. Letter to Irish Times 7.11.13
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Parenting in Direct Provision: Reflection
The most significant maltreatment issues impacting on children include:
(1) Cultural and linguistic misunderstanding which can lead to children being unnecessarily taken into care thus fracturing the family and causing untold stress to children.
(2) Parental anxieties about Direct Provision difficulties and/or immigration status resulting in mental health problems, this in turn having a negative impact on children.
(3) Isolation from the community. (5) Overcrowding. (4) Child poverty.
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Direct Provision: Reflection on Government Response
Disturbing: that while there have been numerous revelations of institutional child abuse in Ireland in recent years, the plight of children in Direct Provisionhas received little government attention. This is the case in spite of the work of various NGOs in this field and the media's highlighting of issues in relation to such children
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Direct Provision: Reflection on Government Response
Apart from curtailing entitlements under the social welfare scheme, the system violates a number of rights as enshrined in a number of National policy guidelines and UN treaties. E.g
Ireland’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC 1989) to which Ireland is signatory
The goals of the National Children’s Strategy (2001) The Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (2000) and the
National Anti-Poverty Strategy” and The National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 Principles of ‘Children First: National Guidance for the Protection
and Welfare of Children’, (2011)24
Research Findings:Interrelated Factors from Families and Social Workers
leading to Mutual Mistrust
SOCIAL WORKERS
FAMILIES
Lack of knowledge of a different culture
Mistrust of families. Influenced by wider society's perception of asylum seekers at the time
Social workers role as State agents
Social workers trusted in cases where their role was perceived as that of a parent
Mistrust caused by families asylum status
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Social Worker: On trust and the role of child protection social workers
“Another thing is that most families who are in the asylum process do not trust social workers because they know we work with immigration officers . At the end of the day we are authority – like immigration officers.”
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Family member: On Trust and the perceived role of child protection social workers
“You wouldn’t want to tell them much; you wouldn’t know where it will end. They work with the immigration people it’s hard to trust them.”
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Social worker: On the role of child protection social workers
“There is a bit of contradiction in the social work role as well in that we are officials within a government department, so maybe they were right not to trust us because at the end of the day we are official people and we can’t be withholding information if we are aware of some information”
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Family member: on the role of the social worker
In my country the social workers- they would help you if you were having problems, but here they seem to come to you even when you do not go looking for them. If someone tells them something about you they come to talk to you. They ask too many questions- they are like immigration officers
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Social Worker: On Trust
“I knew from talking to the children that they were suspicious of me, because they said very little. Even when I tried to get to know them by probing into the stories of what life was like at home they said very little. I tried to earn their trust. It was difficult to get to know them.”
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Family member: On Trust “The social worker was very good to us; she used to
bring us to Dublin on the train to go to the Justice office and she would talk to us. There was only so much you could tell the social worker. They are like school teachers; they help you out but you don’t tell them everything about your family. It was nice to have an adult there because the Justice office is very scary; they ask you so many questions.”
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Family member: On Trust and documentation
“The social workers they said they wanted my children’s birth certificate and I told them I didn’t have them because they were burned when the houses were set on fire by the other tribal groups who were fighting us. It was a difficult situation. You just thought of running away and saving the children; you never thought of bringing all these things.”
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Social Worker: On Trust and documentation
“Sometimes I wondered if Dorothy just used the children so that she could get into the country. Her stories were always contradictory, one time she said Susan was 10 years old and then another time she said the child was 12. I was like God, can you make up your mind? I found if difficult to take Dorothy seriously and I wondered why she found it necessary to lie. Her stories most of the time did not add up. She did not have any form of identification for the children- nothing at all”....
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Social Workers/ Families Trust
Trust Challenges: The care and control aspect of the role of child protection
social workers. Social workers not seen by families as independent of
immigration officers (officialdom) Asylum seeking families status –no documentation, living in
direct provision and challenges of parenting in DP, waiting for decision of status
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Direct Provision/Immigration: Social Workers /Families themes
SOCIAL WORKERS
FAMILIES
Experiences of working with families in direct provision
Experiences of working with families who are subject to deportation ordersExperiences of child protection and Immigration Services
Experiences of possible deportation
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Social Worker: On working with Immigration officials
“It’s hard to work with immigration. You are planning one thing for the family and they are working on another and sometimes you have to wonder; it’s like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. It’s difficult to know what to do when families we work with are also involved with immigration.”
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Social Worker: On working with Immigration officials
“You can’t plan for families as you do not know whether they will be there the next day or not. How can you develop a care plan? It’s difficult to know and very demoralising in one’s work.”
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Social Worker: On working with Immigration officials
““I found the system quite secretive in the way they work. I didn't know what to expect anymore than the young people themselves. The building was not child friendly the officers wore suits it was like a criminal court. Children were treated like adults, as if they had to answer accusations. I didn't approve of that, I didn't think it was helpful. The one thing I remember was the fear in the children when they had to answer accusations put to them.”
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Social Worker: On working with Immigration officials
“I was given the impression that I was not allowed to advocate for the young people, I was merely accompanying them. It was a Department of Justice process. I remember when the introductions where going on they were not interested in my name or where I was coming from”.
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Social Worker: On Deportation
“I could understand the stress and her fear of being deported. She had experience of one of her best friends being deported back to Nigeria and this person killed herself and killed her children by setting them on fire.”
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Recommendations Need to review the direct provision system and replace
with a fair and equitable system Systems reform of interagency collaborative work
between social workers and immigration officers. Ensure asylum seekers in DP are given more choice and
autonomy Review and increase allowance HIQA’and the Children’s Ombudsman roles and remit
need to be extended to families in direct provision cent
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Recommendations Ireland should review its decision not to ratify the EU Reception
Conditions Directive, which would allow all asylum seekers to work after a period of 6 months. Ireland and Denmark are currently the only EU countries that do not grant such a right.
The introduction of more supportive services/early intervention programmes for asylum seeking families
Need to review the time spent in direct provision by families Need for political will and Government commitment to
protection of the best interests of the child in all circumstances.
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References Arnold, S.K. (2012) State sanctioned child poverty and exclusion. The case of children in state
accommodation for asylum seekers. Dublin: Irish Refugee Council. Available at: http://www.irishrefugeecouncil.ie/children-and-young-people/children-in-direct-provision-accommodation/attachment/state-sanctioned-child-poverty-and-exclusion
AkiDwA (2013) Concern Over African Children in State Care. Letter to Irish Times 7.11.13 http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/concern-over-african-children-in-state-care-1.1586076
AkiDwA (2010) Am Only Saying it Now: Experiences of Asylum Seeking Women in Ireland. Dublin:AkIDWA
Christie, A. (2003) Unsettling the 'social' in social work: responses to asylum seeking children in Ireland. Child and Family Social Work, 8 (3): 223-231
Christie A. (2006) From racial to racist state: questions for social professionals working with asylum seekers. Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies, 7 (2): 35-51
Coulter, C. (2014) Second interim report: Child Care Law Reporting Project. http://www.childlawproject.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Interim-report-2-Web.pdf
Coulter, C (2013) Interim Report: Child Care Law Reporting Project. Available at: http://www.childlawproject.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/correctedinterimreport.pdf
Dalikeni, C. (2013) Making Sense of Each Other, Lived Experiences and told stories of asylum seeking families and child protection social workers, PhD thesis submitted to Queens University Belfast. Available at: Dkit Open Access-STÓR: Thesis link http://eprints.dkit.ie/379/
Dolan N & Sherlock, C. (2010) Family support through childcare services: meeting the needs of asylum seeking families. Child Care in Practice, 16 (2)
FLAC (2009) One Size Doesn’t Fit All –a legal analysis of the Direct Provision and Dispersal System in Ireland 10 Years On, Dublin:FLAC
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References Nwachukwu, I.,Browne, D. , Tobin, J. (2009) The Mental Health Service requirements for Asyulm
Seekers and Refugees in Ireland. Report by Working Group of Adult Psychiatry Faculty, Irish College of Psychiatrists
Okitikpi, T and Aymer, C (2003) ‘Social Work with African Refugee Children and Their Families’, Child and Family Social Work 8(3): 213-222
Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (2014) Asylum Seekers and Refugees, Surviving on Hold. Sexual Violence Disclosed to Rape Crisis Centres in 2012. Dublin: RCNI
Ruch, G. (2005) Relationship-based practice and reflective practice: holistic approaches to contemporary child care social work. Child & Family Social Work, 10: 111-123
Shannon, G. (2012) 5threport of the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection: A report submitted to the Oireachtas. Available at: http://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/publications/5RapporteurRepChildProtection.pdf
Thornton, L. (2014) Direct Provision and the Rights of the Child in Ireland. Irish Journal of Family Law 17(3):68-76
Toar, M., O’Brien, K.K., Fahey, T.P. (2009) Comparison of Self-eported Health and Health Care Utilisation between Asylum Seekers and Refugees: an observational study. BMC Public Health Vol. 9:214
Uchechukwu Ogbu, H. (2012) Parenting in Direct Provision: parents’ perspectives regarding stressors and supports. Galway: Child & Family Research Centre. Available at: http://www.childandfamilyresearch.ie/sites/www.childandfamilyresearch.ie/files/parenting_in_dp_report_nov_2012.pdf
Valtonen, K (2001) ‘Immigrant integration in the welfare state: social work's growing arena’, European Journal of Social Work 4(3): 247-262
Wade, J. (2011) Preparation and transition planning for unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee young people: A review of evidence in England. Child & Youth Services Review, 33: 2424-2430
Thank you for listening
Questions /Comments welcome
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