The Social Representation of a Refugee in Canadian Caseworkers

The unexpected massive arrival in Canada of more than 40,000 Syrian refugees during the 2015 national elections has not only put the community social services and the helping professionals under stress but also re-examined their professional practices with the refugee population. Coming from similar cultural trajectories, caseworkers struggle and strive to provide efficient, caring, non-biased, and diverse range of social services to people and situations, in particular refugees or new comers . It is therefore primordial for caseworkers to know and apprehend the social representation of the refugee in order to provide services and interact in a culturally competent manner with this population. Due to their cultural proximity, their social and professional sense of who they are based on their group memberships as caseworkers and former migrants (refugees or other categories), we found relevant to drawn on the social representations theory (Moscovici, 1961) in particular the socio-genetic approach (Jodelet, 1989), with the social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1986). In effect, the two theories are strongly interrelated. Adopting the ethnographic perspective, the purpose of this study is to illustrate on how social representations and social identity can applied to the migration context. Based on individual interviews with Canadian caseworkers, field participations and observations, and online newpapers, we found through thematic analysis that the social representation of a refugee brings forth its duality. On the one hand, it clings to the past representation of the vulnerability and helplessness of the refugee from previous socio-political contexts. On the other hand, the representation shows the contemporaneity of our digital and connected world, embedded into the imperatives of social responsibility and compassion. We seek to illustrate in this thesis, how the social representation of the refugee in Canadian caseworkers is highly connected to their past and current social identity, the social context when and where it was socio-generated from. Key words: social representation, social identity, Syrian refugees, caseworkers, social work, utilization of community social services