Jelka Zorn

Vesna Leskošek

The author considers the fundamental social changes that have been brought about by the process of globalisation. In the first place, she addresses corporate globalisation, which is responsible for increasing differences between the rich North and the poor South. She observes the mechanisms within the process that have the strongest impact on the increase of poverty, especially privatisation and changes in labour relations. She finds a significant change in the 'rhetoric of democracy' – a turn from the principle of equality, which has been the basis of policies since World War II and has made possible, by including social justice, solidarity and freedom, the development of the welfare state, to the principle of differentiation. The principle of equality has warranted a decent life to all citizens, whereas the principle of differentiation marks a new order, which is the consequence of corporate globalisation, and creates distinctions between first-class and second-class citizens, such as between people with and people without papers. The crucial role in warranting equality is assigned to the social state.

Darja Zaviršek

The paper presents the development and character of racism in the Netherlands. In the world of global co-dependence and 'shrunken' geographic distances, it may serve as a representative case. Racism is linked with the social construction of power, and its historical development and its process nature are outlined. The concept of everyday racism is explained as originating in the power relations of a society, which are usually taken as unquestioned reality and normal life. Racism is inherent in cognitive experiences, Euro-centrism, the pressures towards assimilation, and the underestimation of minorities. The acceptance of the dominant interpretations of racism and the rhetoric of 'tolerance' and 'multiculturalism' by themselves diminish the opportunities for minority members to act against everyday racism. Community members are involved in the process of everyday racism in different ways on the basis of their gender, class, social status, etc. Gender specific dimension of racism is presented through a research on the experiences of black women.

Jelka Zorn

The refugee is a person who has been forced to leave his or her country of origin for any reason beyond his or her capacity to do anything about it, be it for hunger, poverty, the consequences of a natural disaster, devastation of villages or towns, chaotic conditions in the state, totalitarianism, war, oppression of minorities, or individual persecution. A key factor of exclusion is immigration controls. Immigration and asylum systems have been fashioned to discourage people to apply for asylum and gain the refugee status. The discouragement and exclusion of people has become normal with the support of administrative differentiation between asylum seekers on the one hand and illegal immigrants on the other. It has the additional effect of criminalisation, which is a widespread technique of dehumanisation and assumes various forms. Alongside the typical discourse of 'fight against illegal migration', its crucial method is preventive detention. People are not detained on the grounds of a judicial verdict for their criminal acts, but to prevent their avoiding deportation from the country. The presentation of these strategies of oppression is followed by a discussion on the role of social work in preventive detention and deportation of foreigners.

Beth Humphries

Movement is a normal process for people across the globe. However, over the twentieth and into the twenty-first centuries, their movement has also been forced. People who are displaced as a result of globalisation, war, and persecution are compelled to seek refuge in countries other than their country of origin. The increase in the numbers of asylum seekers has compelled governments to produce an organised response to them. This response is driven largely by a determination to discourage asylum applications. This article examines policies adopted across the European Union, focussing particularly on UK immigration policy and practice. It considers both external and internal controls on asylum seekers, especially the ways in which welfare entitlement is increasingly dependent on immigration status, leaving asylum seekers deprived of the basic necessities for a dignified life. In particular the article looks into the role health and social work professionals are required to play in implementing asylum policies. It argues that this role contravenes professional ethics, and should be resisted collectively and internationally.

Silke Bercht

Immigrants and refugees who daily cross European borders are always at least in part dehumanised and perceived as a 'disturbance'. Their inclusion into institutions makes them partly provided for and restrained. They become the concern of the agencies of prosecution as well as of social workers, pedagogues, a variety of animators, and medical staff. Though dubbed as 'social problem' and 'the burden of globalisation', few people realise or want to realise that many of them have survived political torture and are heavily traumatised. The author analyses the psychoanalytical concept of trauma and its later interpretations, as well as the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder. She analyses the relations between the torturer and the victim, and presents personal strategies to escape the traumatic situation and the consequences of torture that causes a life-long trauma. She further points out how traumatic experiences continue during flight, waiting for asylum, and confrontation with the new conditions in the destination state. Her proposal is that the staff in asylum centres and other institutions for refugees and asylum seekers gain better knowledge on the consequences of an endured trauma and on the inner world of the survivors of torture.

Katja Dolinar, Tina Glavič, Saša Zupanc

Integration policy in Slovenia has not yet been systematically settled on structural and social-cultural levels. The main problem is accommodation; refugees have no access to non-profit tenancy, they experience discrimination from owners, and their allowance hardly suffices for the rent. As a consequence, they can't register as permanent tenants, which is a condition to obtain a refugee passport. In the field of employment the major drawback is the requirement that they can speak Slovenian. They meet obstacles in the verification of their diplomas and the acknowledgment or working experiences in their countries of origin; furthermore, they experience discrimination from employers. They don't have the same access to medical services as other citizens; they can get a voucher from the ministry of the interior with which the staff of health services is not properly acquainted.

Ilse Derluyn, Eric Broekaert

Unaccompanied refugee children and adolescents – refugee minors living without the support of their parent(s) – are amongst the most vulnerable people within the entire refugee population. The situation of this group in Belgium is exemplary for many unaccompanied refugee minors living in Europe. In Belgium a separated care and protection system created for these minors has to meet their basic needs and fulfil their rights for protection and care until they become of age. In this care system it remains unclear whether these children and adolescents should be primarily considered as refugees or as children. They are a heterogeneous group (regarding gender, age, nationality, background, experiences), though they all share several crucial experiences: migration, loss and grief, uncertain future perspective. All this may put them at great risk for the development of emotional and behavioural problems. Almost half of these youths have severe or very severe symptoms of internalised problems (anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress symptoms). Some may therefore need advanced support and care, but mental health provisions for these groups are almost inexistent in Belgium.

Simona Žnidarec Demšar, Špela Urh

Universalistic perspective dominates social work with the Roma. Frequent racist practices in relation to the Roma are the consequence of non-reflected internalised images of the Roma as a homogenous group. These practices include restrictions while delivering financial aid as well as other forms of control and oppression. On the grounds of their 'different culture' and the entailing social exclusion the Roma are all too often mere passive recipients of social services, often in the exclusive form of financial aid. In this way social work itself becomes part of the oppressive social structure. The new ways of working with the Roma require the formation and maintenance of a working relationship that creates changes together with them, and is based on respect for the complexity of the existential conditions of every individual, taking into account his or her idiosyncrasies and capacities, as well as on the anti-racist approach that directly deals with structural inequalities. The authors discuss how racism affects the Roma, how social services contribute to the creation or perpetuation of racist practices, how they respond to them, and how they may be overcome.

Jelka Zorn

Laura Lukavačkić, Katarina Kromar, Nina Grosek

Alenka Janko Spreizer

Jelka Zorn, Špela Urh

Špela Urh

Bogdan Lešnik

This information should be published in the previous issue of Socialno delo: namely, that the major editorial work was done by Darja Zaviršek. The contributions of Lena Dominelli, Elena larskaia - Smirnova in Dietke Sanders were translated by Polona Mesec. Our journal will change its design next year The change is indicated here, although more because of the occasion than for aesthetic reasons. Namely, this year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of social work education in Slovenia, and the jubilee is marked with a special logo, which has replaced our usual logo on the cover (from which it is derived). This year, it will accompany all products of the educational institution that publishes this journal, and which has good reasons to celebrate, as it has grown from a two-year professional school first to a four-year technical college, and quite recently to a faculty.

France Kresal

Social policy is placed in an historical and economical-political frame. The institutions that carried out social policies, social insurance, public health, social welfare, and labour protection are surveyed, and their basic activities and competences are described. In the period of liberal capitalism social conditions aggravated, and social problems increased to the point where the state and the society could no longer solve them merely with the methods of social welfare and charity. Through building social security and the institutions of labour protections the state developed a social policy, which not only solved problems related to poverty, aiding the affected and rectifying the greatest social injustices, but also preventively solved social problems, and social policy became parallel to economical policy. A methodology is presented to examine sources for the history of social policy until WW2 in institutions whose tasks included maintaining archives. Finally, the paper indicates where more important archives containing pertinent material are located.

Ana Kralj

'Globalisation' is understood as the global spreading of neo-liberal capitalism. It is not only an economical but also a cultural-ideological process, which continually reproduces global poverty, in Western countries no less than others. One of the effects of the processes of globalisation is the criminalisation of poverty (in the central countries of the world system) and the confinement of 'illegal' immigrants (in its 'periphery'). The differentiation of the 'redundant population' is carried out by democratic Western states, which strengthen their controlling and penalising functions and weaken their redistributive social welfare interventions.

Irena Rožman, Duška Knežević Hočevar

Studies on family are scarce in Slovenia, and even those are usually random and unsystematic. Consequently, there is little research that deals with violence in the family. Only since 1999, the number of studies on violence has increased, particularly in the months when the campaign addressing violence against women took place. The printed media are not an exception. Press clippings on violence in the family emerged in a greater number in 1999, when Slovenian professional and lay public acknowledged the importance of that campaign. In their discussions of violence against women in the family in the years 1998-2003, journalists gave priority to themes like types of violence, risk factors in the victim and the perpetrator, and the consequences and dynamic of violence. They stressed that the public discourse on violence against women in the family is still a taboo. The journalists mainly attributed it to the absence of suitable educational programmes on violence in Slovenia, and to poor connections among the institutions that have jurisdiction over, or are dealing with, violence in the family. They pointed out that in Slovenia needs a comprehensive legislation on violence.

Darja Kuzmanič Korva

An important task of centres of social work is the accomplishment of the National Programme of Social Welfare until 2005. On the basis of this document a platform for the development of the whole field (not only of the centres) was elaborated. The developmental strategy defined a new, contemporary image of the centres. Standards were designed for the achievement of individual tasks that are carried out by public mandate or by law, and social welfare services were defined, as was the role of local coordinator. The user has come become central and is granted access to the network of all providers. The task of the coordinator of social welfare in local community is defined as the completion of the system of services. With the platform, the centres entered a new period. The tasks specified by the law cannot be accomplished by procedures alone; hence, the development of methods and techniques is emphasised, without which the public mandate cannot be carried out. Furthermore, the idea of coordination of the network on the local level promotes community approach and the synergy of all providers of social welfare.

Barbara Kobal, Nino Rode, Liljana Rihter, Jelka Zorn

What the task of evaluation in the field of social welfare calls for, beside a model, are suitable instruments of measurement, which should reveal whether the aims of individual social welfare programmes are achieved, and what is the quality of their work. The aims are of two kinds: on the one hand are those that are generally determined in the National Programme of Social Welfare, and on the other hand are the concrete aims of each organisation. The latter, supposed to differ from one group of programmes to another, may be recognised by the use of focus groups. The paper presents how focus groups were planned, and sums up the main points from the analysis of discussions in focus groups for the programmes of first social aid, crisis centres for interventions and short-term placing, and the service of institutional care of the aged.

Žarko Tepavčević

The analysis of the population of all married couples in crisis that were counselled at the Centre of Social Work Ljubljana - Šiška shows that the relationship between the spouses (as well as between the spouses and the counsellor) is initially bad in 70 % of cases, but it improves in the later stages of counselling. Counsellors at the Centre have concluded the majority of cases with satisfactory (21 %), good (21 %) and very good (16%) solution of the marital crisis. From the variables related to the work of counsellors the author composes a synthetic variable, the index of the efficiency of counselling, which distributes the discussed population very well (the values of arithmetic mean, modus and median are very close together). It is used as a quantitative indicator of the effects of marital counselling in the process of divorce.

Suzana Kraljić

Divorce has many legal consequences. Amongst them, regulation of the relationship between parents and children is especially important, because divorce also has psychosocial consequences for children. Family mediation can help normalise the relationship between parents, and particularly their relation to children. Children should be fully informed about the divorce, and they should have an opportunity to express their opinion. The mediator must pay attention to the child's best interests throughout the process. Contacts with children are often the central problem of divorcing parents. Instead of maintaining genuine relations with their children, they may abuse them for their own purposes. Mediation helps parents and children realise that parenthood does not end with divorce.

Darja Zaviršek

Darja Zaviršek

The paper is based on the concept of civic handicap experienced by minority children and their mothers. It is understood in the widest sense, not as limited to physical and mental impairments but as describing socially constructed handicap causing unequal opportunities. The civic handicap may be transgenerational, passing from parents to children. The handicap of Roma children, for example, is a consequence of their parents' as well as their community's handicap. Conversely, children's handicap may transfer to their parents. The parents of a handicapped child will on this account themselves suffer many handicaps. The first part of the paper presents a critical analysis of the mother's experiences and her personal narratives about their perception of the child and what meaning they ascribe to the handicap. The second part presents a critical analysis of two concepts, the 'child-centred perspective' and the 'modernisation of childhood', showing that neither takes into account minority children. The double criteria are often characteristic for the treatment of the Roma and the handicapped children. The paper al so discusses the skills and methods of work that the social worker should master while working with the handicapped children's mothers and with the minority children.

Lena Dominelli

The paper highlights the exclusion of disabled women from dominant discourses about disability to indicate the differentiated experiences of disability both amongst women and between men and women. It argues that disablism is responsible for this particular form of exclusion and focuses on its roots in both patriarchal and able-bodied views of the world. It also reveals the invisibility of disabled women within analyses put forward by the Disability Movement and through the collusion of practitioners engaged in professional practice with disabled men and women. It makes suggestions about how working with disabled people can be undertaken in a more egalitarian relationship that recognises their subjectivity and puts them in charge of events.

Elena larskaia-Smirnova

The private sphere plays an important role in the lives of disabled people. It includes personal experience of disability on a micro level, in the family, in romantic relationships and in the routines of everyday life. The article describes the role that the family plays in constructing the identity of a person with disability and how family members act as co-authors of individual biographies. The family builds hierarchies of age and gender, which reproduce social inequality within itself as well as in society. The article is based on the analyses of family stories of women who use wheelchair, and it gives evidence that family in many cases is unlikely to solve problems formed by the unfair organization of society. Family as a context for 'moral careers' and social mobility of the disabled women is considered, in order to learn to what degree the family structure reinforces or weakens the hierarchies of physical differences caused by disability, age and gender. The family and a number of other social institutions contribute to the reproduction of status hierarchy. This study glimpses into the real life of the families that, dealing with disability, accepted it and experienced a range of changes. The voices of women who live with disability help us understand that the family of the disabled may enter certain risk zones constructed by social conviction and lack of the social support on the side of professionals and community.

Dietke Sanders

Women with intellectual disabilities are of ten seen as eternal children who need support throughout their lifetime and are therefore incapable of caring for anybody else. Thus mothers with intellectual disabilities are a living contradiction - a grown up child as well as a dependent carer. They turn tradition al hierarchies upside down: usually it is the non-handicapped people who are responsible for persons with disabilities and make decisions for them, not the other way round. Mothers with intellectual disabilities and their children live in a situation between risk, resilience and competence. Well-being of the children is the main argument against their right to have and raise a child. There is a tendency to see risks in such families not only as a result of the mothers' disability. Experiences with residential projects and in-house care in Germany show that women with intellectual disabilities already have parental skills or are able to learn to care for a child. Social work can support them, improve their parental skills and empower them to be 'good enough' mothers. On the other hand, social work can be a risk factor, concentrating on the mothers' deficits and burdening them with the pressure to be 'perfect' might finally cause them fail.

Barbara Ivačič

Systemic help to families with a developmentally challenged child mainly focuses on the problems of the child. Our qualitative research has provided some insight into the factors that determine the system mother-developmentally challenged child-family- environment. Structured interviews have been carried out with twelve mothers of developmentally challenged children. The data have confirmed that it is mothers who take over the greatest part of care. In general, they steer between, on the one hand, feelings of guild and helplessness and fears, which are of ten reinforced by negative prognoses and information given by professionals, and on the other hand, their love for the child and the fight for the better future. In their efforts that their child should maximally develop his or her potentials they again meet what is called 'over-optimism and unreal expectations'. A great majority of interviewed mother s find that the 'misfortune' has changed their lives and has given them unexpected opportunities for personal growth.

Irena Ceglar

The relation between adults with intellectual disability and their parents is socially conditioned. People with intellectual disability are still mainly treated from the medical standpoint based on needs. The parents of such children expect their child to remain dependent. Institutional care and once dominant approaches of professionals to the work with relatives reinforce the parents' impression that they will have to care as well as control their child throughout his or her life. A smaller research was conducted in order to illuminate the relation between adults with intellectual disability and their mothers. It was found that mothers are extremely important also in the adulthood of their children and that the bond with the mother is of ten the strongest emotional link. This may be explained with the extent of the social network in such cases, which tends to be limited to the primary family.

Julijana Kralj

The paper presents the lives of women with motor disability and with the medical consequences of the impairment of the spine or of illness, which influence the way of life of the user and the whole family. In most cases the women get accustomed to the changed way of life. Some, however, find it difficult to adjust. They feel it as a heavy physical, psychological and social burden. If in addition they are dependent in terms of finances, housing or in pure physical terms, they find it difficult to cope, they are more exposed to oppression and abuse, and they have less opportunities for self-help in a crisis situation. For a way out they need more help than women who have a positive attitude to life, strong personality, independent housing, and who are socially and economically well settled. Most participants in the research of ten experienced multiple abuses and cannot solve their problems without assistance. Despite the development of work in the field of violence prevention there is still much to be done for the disabled women who experience abuse and social exclusion. Further research is needed in order to adequately plan social services for the victims.

Mojca Urek

The concept of handicap is not based on diagnosis; instead, handicap is 'measured' by the obstacles to independent living. Foreign researches show that women with disabilities remain in a dangerous situation twice as long as those without. The increased vulnerability is linked to many factors: they are less informed, more dependent upon carers and partners, and more isolated. Their statements are of ten taken as not credible, and the people around them of ten support their conviction that they are unable to get a better partner. One of the most aggravating factors is the inaccessibility of services. Beside physical obstacles, which prevent access, they may run into many other obstacles (sometimes they cannot call the police, it is more difficult for them to take refuge in a safe house). Safe houses do not provide continuing personal assistance that some women need; another obstacle is their lack of skills. A quick survey of the situation in Slovenia shows that despite the conviction that family violence suffered by disabled women is widespread, professionals are ill informed about their special living conditions, and that help is almost inaccessible to them.

Dušan Dvorščak

Various accounts show that there are few reports of sexual abuse in the central institution for the deaf and hard-to-hear in Ljubljana. There are many more cases of suspected abuse, mainly amongst the students in the institution themselves. Sexual abuse amongst them seems closely connected with the handicap of deafness, language and communication. The reasons for the higher probability of sexual abuse amongst them are sought in their being uninformed, in the ignorance of professional workers, in stereotypical ideas about the role of women in the society, about sexuality, about violence, and in particular in the discourse that dominates their schooling. Lower linguistic and communicational skills seem to be the main reason for the extremely low sensibility of the students for the occurrences of sexual abuse.

Špela Urh

Persons with intellectual disabilities may be children or adults, who are, on account of being categorised in this way, ascribed the lowest capabilities for schooling, employment, independent living, etc. Women with intellectual disability are disregarded even more. The Act of directing children with special needs (2000) and the Act of occupational rehabilitation and the employment of invalids (2004) are only partially based on the principles of integration and full inclusion of children and adults with intellectual disabilities into regular education and sheltered employment. The question remains whether that legislation promotes social inclusion of the people with intellectual disability at all.

Zinka Kolarič, Liljana Rihter, Ružica Boškic, Tatjana Rakar

The first part of the paper presents the crucial findings of the quantitative research that was carried out in invalid, charity and self-help organisations. The questions were: what existential situations, degree of disability and informal social networks characterise the users of their programmes, which of their needs are satisfied by these programmes, and in what extent do they provide a higher quality of life of the users. The second part is a discussion of statistically significant differences between female and male users of the services provided by invalid organisations, which show that the female users have less consumer goods at their disposal and more frequently limit their expenses for vacation and entertainment than their male counterparts. Female users more of ten live alone, without children or parents, and are less of ten married. They less frequently participate in the organs of associations and are more satisfied with the impact of services in the medical field and in the field of their personal safety.

Mateja Nagode, Polona Dremelj

When people are confronted with problems and stress, they usually turn for help and social support to friends, families, or partners. Social support is understood as a complex concept of a higher order. The presented features of social support networks of the people with motor difficulties in Slovenia are based upon a research of social support networks in Slovenia, which was carried out in 2002 by the Centre of methodology and informatics at University of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Studies and the Republic of Slovenia Institute for Social Protection. The findings based on a representative sample for the age 18 years or more show that approximately 10 percent of the adult population in Slovenia has motor difficulties, amongst whom there are more women (58 percent). The differences in social support networks for men and women with motor difficulties are visible in the network structure: the women's networks include more relatives, while the men's networks include more friends, co-workers, and neighbours. The crucial source of emotional support and support in case of illness are for men their partners, and for women their children.

Elena Pečarič

Martina in Uroš Piskač

Maca Jogan

Darja Zaviršek