“Fast det där är ju rasism”. Myndighetsutövande socialarbetare med utländsk bakgrund - erfarenheter av rasism och strategier för att bemöta den

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate how government-employed social workers with a foreign background experience racism in worklife. We were also interested in examining the interviewees' experiences of what strategies against racism the work-environment has used or uses in situations where racism has occurred as what kind of strategies they use themselves to handle racism. Questions we have chosen to achieve answers is: What experiences do the interviewees have of belonging to a foreign background in the profession in relation to racism? What strategies do the interviewees use to tackle racism in the workplace? What are the interviewees experience of the staff groups strategies for racism in the workplace? The method we used to carry out our study was an intensive and qualitative content analysis where the empirical material consisted of interviews with five persons of foreign background within professional social work. The interviews were analyzed using a thematic analysis. For the study’s theoretical part, we used the theories postcolonialism and racism as a basis to further discuss the analysis of the factors which pinpoint the issue. Our conclusion of this study is that racism affects professional social workers with foreign backgrounds in many ways which lead them to either quit their jobs or to find other strategies to tackle the widespread racism within social work institutions.