Undocumented Immigrant Social Issues

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Culture is deemed to be the client’s values, beliefs, customs, race and ethnicity, spirituality, gender and sexuality, etc. (NASW, 2015). The social worker is obligated to become culturally competent in order to effectively work with diverse cultures. The United States has an extremely diverse population and of this population 11.3 million are undocumented immigrants (CAP Immigration Team, 2014). Undocumented immigrants encounter many social issues. Claudia and her family faced many social issues which the clinical social worker if culturally competent could help them address. Social workers are required to provide culturally competent services to their client and are responsible to become culturally competent.
Social Issues The immigrant
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According to Juckett (2013), many Hispanic or Latino immigrants are unable to afford health care and/or insurance, many have alternate beliefs in care and will seek non-traditional treatments, and many have cultural mistrust. In the case of Claudia, the family was unsure of seeking help for their daughter as a result of their lack of legal citizenship and they did not know if they could trust the counselor. Many undocumented immigrants such as Claudia’s family are afraid if they seek services, they will face deportation. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive SNAP benefits or to sign up for insurance through the Affordable Healthcare Plan (United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 2016). This lack of social services will continue to leave the family in poverty, lacking food at times if there is also a lack of income, and leave the family with no alternative when they are ill but to visit the emergency …show more content…
The clinical case manager needs to be aware of the client’s cultural beliefs and customs. According to Suárez- Orozco, et al., (2013), social workers need to be aware and should take into consideration when completing an assessment, “the ability of the client in regards to language, educational background, and cultural norms but also recognize that many immigrant clients are concerned about diagnostic labels due to cultural stigma and/or immigration

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