Social Work in Sweden, general trends and the particular case of migrant children

The restructuring of the Swedish welfare state and increasing inequalities are social transformations over the past three decades. Sweden has lost its leading position in the international rankings of social equality. New ways of understanding and addressing social problems allow privatization of social services. In this paper, the authors discuss the responses by social workers in care cases and institutionalized responses from foster care. Those places detected the failure of institutionalized forms of child protection. In the individual case-work, the authors see an emergence of critical responses among social workers, who within the legal framework question the tradition of loyalty to Swedish state authority in social work. They also see arise organizations challenging repressive policies and try to work from a perspective that takes into account the issues affecting migrant children. Adapted from the source document.