Social Workers as Game Changers

Confronting Complex Social Issues Through Cases

Laura Lewis

• Editorial: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Año: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781506317038
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Social Sciences
• Categoría: Social Work

Designed to promote active, hands-on learning, this unique book is composed of 11 chapter-length case studies that prepare students to address the types of challenging social issues they will encounter as practicing social workers. The cases—covering topics from immigration, gangs, and education to race, mental health, and end-of-life care—illustrate the interrelationship between the micro, mezzo, and macro levels and facilitate not just recall of facts, but also higher-level learning. Each case allows students to confront realistic scenarios as they evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information, resulting in more engaged and informed classroom discussions.

Chapter 1 Understanding the Complexities, Costs, and Benefits Surrounding Immigration Policy: Tough Decisions for Families and Policy Makers

“ If I get caught sneaking out again, my uncle might make good on his threat to send me to Guatemala,” Santana whispered to Adrianna.

“Well, we’ll just have to be more careful then,” replied Adrianna. “I don’t see how you can handle your uncle’s oppressive rules; you can hardly take a breath without asking for permission.”

Santana just laughed. She figured it was pointless to defend her uncle by telling Adrianna that they should not be sneaking out anyway. Mature beyond her 13 years, Santana was extremely grateful to Uncle Felix for taking her and her younger sister, Izzie, into his already crowded home when their mom was detained and then deported. Eight months had passed since that horrible day when she came home from school to find her aunt waiting with the bad news. Santana had no doubt her mom would do everything she could to get back to her daughters. She would first have to figure out a way to somehow piece together enough money to pay a coyote¹ to assist her in crossing the borders from Guatemala to the United States. She did not want to think about how long that might take or even if her mom would get across safely. Though she missed her mom, putting up with Uncle Felix’s rules was not that bad, as they really were not terribly unreasonable. Santana knew that his tendency to be a bit overprotective was due to his cultural beliefs and because he cared about her. He was as close to a father as Santana had since her dad had died when she was seven. And Santana was well aware of the promise Uncle Felix made to her father to watch out for his two children.

1 Term used for person who, for a fee, assists in the transport (smuggling) of undocumented immigrants across the U.S. border.

“Let’s get back to studying,” was Santana’s response to her best friend whom she shared so much with: clothes, secrets, and the loss of a parent to cancer. What they did not share was immigration status. Born in the United States to undocumented immigrants, Santana was a U.S. citizen, while Adrianna came to the United States with her father at the age of 10 after her mom died. Adrianna had two younger siblings who remained in Mexico with her grandparents.

“Okay, okay, I only have an hour until I need to prepare dinner so let’s get at it,” said Adrianna, who knew she would never have made it this far in school if Santana had not befriended her, helped her with her English, and tutored her in every subject except math, which she excelled in.

Adrianna had arrived at Ridgeway Elementary halfway through the fourth grade year, knowing little English and still in the throes of grief after the painful loss of her mom to brain cancer. Something about the depth of sadness Adrianna exuded that first day she arrived at school caused Santana to gravitate to her, and soon they were inseparable. They balanced each other, Santana being the more responsible and serious of the two while Adrianna was always looking for ways to have fun.

Ten minutes back into studying, Santana’s mind started to wander. She had been having nightmares about her mom’s potential journey back into the United States. There was no doubt that her mom would either try to come back to her daughters or maybe decide to bring her daughters back to Guatemala. Santana did not know which one scared her more. Her parents had come from an impoverished village where one-room concrete homes with tin roofs and dirt floors were the norm. What kind of future would this hold for her and Izzie? The United States was her home and the only country she had ever lived in. Her English was better than her Spanish, and she was proud to be a U.S. citizen. On the other hand, could her mom safely navigate her way back to the outskirts of Middleton to be with her daughters?

The stories her mom shared with her over the years, and subsequently that she had passed on to Adrianna, kept running through her head. Santana’s mother, Marissa, had told Santana that she had not wanted to leave Guatemala and that it had taken Santana’s father, Miguel Gomez, their entire first year of marriage to convince her that they had to leave to build a better life for the children they planned to have. He promised her that in time they would return, but at the time, he could not make a living in Guatemala. Miguel was not naïve; he knew life would still be hard at first in the United States, but he also knew he could find work and both provide for his immediate family and send money back home to help his parents.

Thoughts of her father mingled with fears for her mother. Santana knew that her dad was not yet a teenager when he had started spending close to 5 months of most years as a migrant worker in the United States, following the crops from California to Colorado. His work in the fields, alongside his father and two brothers, allowed his family to live comfortably for the remainder of the year. During the years they didn’t make the trip to the United States, her dad’s family often could not scrape up the money to pay for basic necessities. Over the years, as the number of Border Patrol agents increased, along with other surveillance, the trip became more expensive and more dangerous. One year, shortly before marrying Marissa, while crossing the border from Mexico into the United States, four of the men in the vehicle Miguel rode in died from heat stroke. Their coyote had arranged for them to ride in the back of an old produce truck. It turned out to be an unseasonably hot period, and the combination of poor ventilation, too little water, and no stops to get out for air (as they had been promised) turned the back of the truck into a death trap for some of the 20 men crammed in. The men had been given orders to remain silent whenever the truck stopped. Finally, after one exceptionally long stop, the men knew something was very wrong and could not handle the sauna-like conditions any longer. Their pleas and banging to get out went unheeded for what seemed like hours, and, as some of the men lost consciousness, the fear that they were all doomed intensified. Miguel considered it a miracle that Border Patrol spotted the abandoned vehicle before they all succumbed to the heat. Though disappointed about being sent back home, it seemed like a small price to pay at that point. Despite this brush with death, Miguel knew that he would journey to the United States again. He simply concluded he must travel back and forth much less often, and that moving to the United States permanently was the best option of providing for the family he dreamed of having.

“Santana!” shouted Adrianna.

“What is it, what’s wrong?” a startled Santana asked.

“Why don’t you tell me? You were staring out the window, and I had to call your name three times before you responded.”

Fighting back tears, Santana told Adrianna what was consuming her thoughts, not that Adrianna could not have guessed. “I miss my parents. They were always yelling at us or each other, but that is just how they communicated, and when Dad got sick I saw how much they cared for each other. Uncle Felix and Aunt Margareta do their best, but I need my mom. It is not fair. Did I ever tell you that my parents did try to get papers to enter the United States legally? Mom said it was almost a year before they heard back that they were so far down the waiting list it would be years and maybe decades before they would be considered. My mom said after that news, she and Dad had countless arguments before she finally gave in, agreed to cross the border, and enter the United States without proper documentation. All she insisted on was that he find a job, and then she would follow.”

Adrianna had heard bits and pieces of the story before but knew her friend needed to talk. So, she listened as Santana continued on about how her father, Miguel, had traveled to the United States, secured a job in construction with the help of Marissa’s older brother, Felix, and then sent money to pay for Marissa to make the trip. Seven months after Miguel landed a job in Texas, Marissa, now eight months pregnant with Santana, followed. At great cost, Miguel had made sure that he hired someone he could trust to ensure safe passage for his pregnant wife.

“I really better finish up these few algebra problems,” was Santana’s signal that she had said all she wanted for the time being, so they both got back to their homework. Within minutes, Santana’s mind had gone to thinking about her best friend’s situation and conversations they had not so long ago.

Adrianna’s story differed from Santana’s in that her father had left his family in Mexico while he worked in construction in the United States. He returned for visits a couple of times a year during the first few years of Adrianna’s life. During one of those visits, Adrianna’s twin sisters were conceived. After her third birthday, the visits became less frequent. Adrianna had no way of knowing that the infrequency was due to beefed-up security at the border following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. All she knew was that she missed her father. He came home for a longer than usual stay when she was 8 years old, after her mom was diagnosed with cancer.

Santana had seen Adrianna cry more than a few times as she retold the story of how, when her dad was home in Centro, a village just outside Mexico City, and her mom was still healthy enough to enjoy life, the five of them were always together playing, dancing, and singing. This only lasted a short while. Reflecting back, Adrianna thinks maybe it was 5 to 6 months of happy memories before her dad was gone again, right after her ninth birthday, this time not to return until after Adrianna’s mom had died. Adrianna had confided in Santana that sometimes she still felt anger at her dad for leaving them that last time. Now at 13, she knew her dad had left because there was no work in their village, and he wanted to be able to support his family and send money so her grandparents could get her mom the care she needed. But, as a 9-year-old, she had convinced herself that if her dad had stayed, her mom would have gotten better and not died. Despite what logic told her, she still felt a degree of resentment.

Increasingly, in the past few months, Santana had observed Adrianna lash out in anger at her dad, Mr. Torrez, when things were not going her way. Mr. Torrez’s response, or more accurately lack of response, is what surprised Santana. She could see the hurt on Mr. Torrez’s face, but he let Adrianna get away with, what Santana considered, horribly disrespectful behavior. Santana wondered if he too blamed himself for not b...

Índice

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Understanding the Complexities, Costs, and Benefits Surrounding Immigration Policy: Tough Decisions for Families and Policy Makers
• Chapter 2 Community Organizing Concepts and Principles: Rebuilding Holyoke From the Ground Up
• Chapter 3 Achieving Racial Equality: Education, Housing, Health, and Justice … A Long Way to Go
• Chapter 4 End-of-Life Care, Costs, Concerns, and Conflict: Too Much of the Wrong Kind of Care?
• Chapter 5 Mental Illness: Community Supports and Community Dilemmas
• Chapter 6 Perplexing Challenges in Child Protective Services: Life on the Front Line
• Chapter 7 Society’s Evolving Understanding of Chemical Addiction and the Subsequent Changes in Policy and Treatment Approaches: The Struggle to Stay Clean
• Chapter 8 Understanding the Draw of Gangs, Consequences for Neighborhoods, and Determining an Effective Response: The North Side Crew
• Chapter 9 Eminent Domain, Urban Renewal, and NIMBY: Is There a Win-Win Solution?
• Chapter 10 Homelessness and the Housing First Debate: Wrestling With the Issues
• Chapter 11 Examining the Elementary and Secondary Education System in the United States and One Family’s Dilemma: Fight or Flight