Preparedness in Serving Immigrants and the Effect of Supervisor and Agency Support

Immigrant families in the child welfare system rely heavily on social workers to overcome unique familial challenges. However, there is limited research on social work students’ preparedness to serve this population and the extent to which supervisors and agencies support social workers. Preliminary survey data of 48 Title IV-E social work students was used to assess (a) which social-level factors better prepared a student’s ability to serve immigrants and (b) if support from a supervisor or agency affects a student’s willingness to challenge anti-immigrant sentiment and advocate for their clients. Results show that personal experiences better prepared students to serve immigrants regardless of documentation status, with academic coursework and internship showing little effect for preparedness. Students’ ability to advocate for immigrants was influenced by agency support and challenging anti-immigrant sentiment was influenced by supervisor support. These findings suggest the need to examine social work curricula critically to prepare students to work with immigrant families, most especially students who have no personal experience working with immigrants. Furthermore, qualitative studies are needed to best contextualize the social processes involved to supplement the findings from this quantitative study.