Les demandes de placement d’enfants des familles juives du Maghreb : un révélateur des évolutions du travail social en France (1950-1970)

Abstract

From the 1950s onwards, the question of placing children in institutions was constructed as a problem in the field of Jewish social services. This development is situated at the crossroads of a dynamic of transformation of social service intervention practices, the doctrine of casework, and the construction of the field of the medical-psychology of child services. This issue is of special relevance to the arrival of populations of urban North African Jews and the increase in demands for placement of these children by the OSE and the CASIP. This article looks at this critical moment in the history of child placement and highlights how the role of social workers has been reconfigured, both in terms of assessing requests for placement and the need to coordinate efforts with other child care professionals.