Anthropology and Social Work: Moroccan Immigrant Women in Spain

Abstract

Despite immigrants having a plethora of ideas, beliefs, and practices, social work practice in Spain does not account for the profound variety of cultures. Part of the reason is that social work in Spain is still developing as a profession (Báñez Tello 2004). Practitioners have a 240-hour internship and take a series of courses on general "immigration," which lumps the various groups into stringent categories, in order to obtain their certificate in social work. With the scant postgraduate training and professional supervision, Spanish social workers often scramble to find information about their specialization in the field, such as working with various ethnic immigrant groups (Fernández García and Carmen Alemán Bracho 2006).