The Politics of Social Work in an Era of Welfare State Bordering.
CESSMIR Seminar, in collaboration with the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy.
Across the EU, a politics of welfare state bordering is taking place: in an attempt to deter (potential) immigrants from entering and staying on the national territory, growing groups of immigrants are excluded from the social rights and public services that are typically associated with the welfare state. This process pushes immigrants into precarious conditions, while shrinking the space for social workers to engage in political work that addresses structural inequalities. In this seminar, two leading scholars will explore both the conundrum of doing social work in an era of welfare state bordering, and some potential ways out.
Synnøve Bendixsen is professor of social anthropology and dean of the faculty of social sciences at Bergen University (Norway). Over the past decade, prof. Bendixsen has published widely on the entwinement of the Norwegian welfare state and migration. In 2024, she co-edited an already influential special issue on the process of welfare state bordering, including case studies on different groups of immigrants from across the EU.
Ilker Ataç is professor of politics of social work at the Fulda Hochschule (Germany). Drawing on case studies from the Netherlands, Germany and Austria, he has published extensively on the instrumentalization of urban social policies for the purposes of controlling migration, as well as different forms of contentious politics, migrant-led activism and citizenship. He is currently examining how health professionals continue to negotiate and counter the exclusion of precarious migrants from health care in Germany.
Register here before 16 December
Practicalities:
- Campus Dunant 2 (exact location tbc) ;
- 18 December, 12 :45-14 :45
- For any questions, please contact robin.vandevoordt@ugent.be