Environmentally Displaced Persons: Broadening Social Work’s Helping Imperative

This article traces the evolution and trajectory of a new class of oppressed persons—Environmental Displaced Persons (EDP). It argues that helping cannot limit itself to one's neighborhood or even country, and that environmentally displaced persons must become a central focus of attention for social workers and other helping professionals. The causative factors forcing the displacement of millions of people are a matter of grave concern for social workers who are called upon to advocate for global justice and basic human rights. It also suggests several alternative models such as a human-rights based approach and anti-oppressive theory and practice which may prove useful as social workers struggle to come to terms with the plight of millions of environmentally displaced persons and the underlying injustices their predicament reveals