International Migration Crisis: Critical Social Work and Social Policy Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

Social work and social policy in the context of migration is an integral part of social work practice and, therefore, also to social work and social policy education and research for a long time, with its profile being raised due to the re-emergence of large-scale social conflicts.

The re-emergence of the current migration crisis in 2015 has some distinct features in terms of the underlying reasons for its scale, international impacts, and changes in social policies and social work practice. Last, but not least, one such factor is COVID-19, which does not conform to formal borders and demonstrates that social inequalities and injustices are issues of life and death.

Taken together, the points raised above call for critical reflection based on research evidence, which includes details of the research questions, methodology, key findings, and outcomes. Articles may focus on structural injustices, social and individual specifications, and intersectional contextualisation.

In this issue, we focus on the following two areas:

• Critical research studies which systematically detail social work practice and social policy intentions and outcomes in relation to people who migrate and acquire different and fragmented policy status, such as refugees and asylum seekers.
• Critical reflection from the perspectives of service users, people on the move and those in the host countries, social policy makers, and social workers regarding the outcomes in terms of human rights and social work ethics, in response to the underlying reasons for migration.

If you are uncertain whether your proposed paper might address these issues, please feel free to contact the editors to discuss this.

Prof. Shulamit Ramon
Prof. Darja Zaviršek
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Key dates:

1st September 2020: Informing the editors of article topic followed by a short summary of the key issues and methodology of the intended article.
15th September 2020: Editors confirm acceptance of the article concept.
15th December 2020: Final submission date for the first draft of the article.
31st January 2021: Drafts sent back to authors with peer reviewers’ comments.
28th February 2021: Final date of submission of revised articles.
31st March 2021: Publication of the Special Issue with Editors’ introduction.