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Asylum seeking continues to be a highly emotive and politically charged issue. This book analyses social work through the concept of 'xenoracism' to challenge the outdated concepts of racism that still pervade social work. Using discourse analysis, it explores how language is used to construct asylum seekers in specific ways within social workers' narratives. It illuminates how the deployment of specific linguistic resources legitimates these constructs by rendering them as reasonable and acceptable ways of viewing asylum seekers. Asylum Seekers, Social Work and Racism demonstrates how racist discourse and exclusionary tendencies can occur without reference to overt forms of racism that are based on biological categorisations. Significantly, Masocha illustrates how social workers can counteract these exclusionary tendencies through their discursive practices. In demonstrating the complexities and ever-shifting contours of exclusionary discourse, it will be of great interest for researchers, students and practitioners alike.

Summary This article analyses how asylum seekers are constructed as an out-group in some of the narratives provided by practitioners who were interviewed as part of a wider research study of social workers' discourses of asylum seekers. Findings Using discursive psychology, the article identifies interpretative repertoires that were used by social workers in their formulations of asylum seekers as the other. The article explores the linguistic resources that were deployed in these formulations. Applications The article highlights the potential contributions of discursive perspectives to social work research, teaching and practice as it illuminates the pivotal role that language plays within the profession in the construction of subjectivities, and specifically in relation to the protection, perpetuation and normalisation of discrimination.

Intro -- Foreword -- List of Contributors -- 1: Introduction -- The structure of the book -- Reflective Questions -- References -- 2: 'Race', Racism and Resistance: Theory and Politics -- Introduction -- Theorising 'race': some words of caution -- Origins and evolution of 'race' thinking -- The scriptural phase: sixteenth and seventeenth centuries -- The scientific phase: eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries -- End of scientific racism -- Sociological phase: late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- Mid to late twentieth century -- The race relations model -- Conflict approaches -- Black perspectives -- Black feminist perspectives -- Conclusion -- Reflective Questions -- References -- 3: (Re)imagining New Spaces for Anti-Racist Social Work: Policy Deliberation as Practice -- Introduction -- Anti-racist advocacy and neoliberal politics -- The refugee crisis: a contextual background -- Political discourse as practical argumentation -- The case study -- Delineating the structure of practical argumentation -- Interpretative repertoires and the (de)legitimation of policy measures -- Using our head and heart -- Implications for anti-racist social work -- Conclusion -- Reflective Questions -- References -- 4: Popular Social Work in the West Bank - Insights for an Internationalist Anti-Racist Social Work -- Introduction -- Popular social work -- Popular social work in Palestine -- The voice of Palestinian 'popular' social workers -- Rediscovery/recovery -- Self-determination and social justice -- Dreaming -- Commitment -- Action -- Conclusion -- Reflective Questions -- References -- 5: Reflections on the Development, Ideology and Practice of Anti-Racist Social Work in Greece -- Introduction -- Greek nationalism, racism and the mainstream ideology of social work.

• Summary: This article provides a critique of the epidemiological research that currently informs mental health social work with asylum seekers. Most of the literature that currently informs social work practice with asylum seekers with mental health difficulties comes from psychiatric studies which are largely underpinned by a medical model. • Findings: It is argued that aetiological accounts, predominantly deriving from psychiatry and based largely on biological causation, are untenable. A more comprehensive model is presented, which considers both biological causation and a social perspective and locates the mental health difficulties experienced by asylum seekers in a much wider context. The model is further divided into pre-, post- and migratory stress factors. • Application: The aim is to provide social work with a practical tool to make sense of the mental health difficulties faced by asylum seekers, help in the development of assessment tools, and help multidisciplinary agencies to define the roles and remit of staff as well as contribute towards the development of policy and practice.