Social work with foreigners from the point of view of the Authority for Social and Legal Protection of Children

This diploma thesis is part of the project entitled "Selected aspects of the integration of foreigners living in the Czech Republic and their relationship to social work" (reg. no. GAJU 101/2022/S). The aim of the work is to analyze and describe the barriers of social work with foreigners from the point of view of the social and legal protection of children (OSPOD). For the purposes of the thesis, two research questions were chosen. 1. What differences do social workers from OSPOD encounter during social investigations of foreigners? 2. What is the course of social work with foreigners? The diploma thesis is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. In the theoretical part, the terms related to migration are defined, it also deals with social work with foreigners, defines its methods and support networks for foreigners, and last but not least, the definitions related to the authority for the social and legal protection of children, its characteristics, the legal framework and next. The practical part of the work contains the results of research related to social work with foreigners from the point of view of the authority for the social and legal protection of children. A qualitative research strategy, an interview method and a semi-structured interview technique were chosen for the preparation of this diploma thesis according to the instructions. Interviews were conducted with OSPOD managers or with other employees authorized by the manager. The interviews were evaluated using an open coding method and nine domains were created. Based on the research, it was found that social work with foreigners from the point of view of the social-legal child protection can be in many respects the same as with Czech clients, but the truth is that in connection with the outbreak of war in Ukraine, this situation of workers brought a lot of work and which they have not encountered until now, such as working with unaccompanied minors or other education system in Ukraine. The work was mostly time-consuming and psychologically demanding, but the informants' testimony showed that the OSPOD workers here had many positive things and these experiences brought them personal development and insight into another culture. The information obtained showed that the biggest barrier when working with foreigners is the language barrier. A problem related to the language barrier is also the lack of interpreters, which complicates the whole situation when working with foreigners, and social workers had to look for other solutions to communicate with foreigners. Other barriers are for example unrealistic expectations and mistrust on the part of clients, arrogance, non-acceptance of Czech law and reluctance to accept a new environment. On the part of OSPOD employees it is for example orientation in legislation related to the outbreak of war in Ukraine. It was about orientation in temporary protection, asylum law and permanent residence. As a result, OSPOD social workers had to adapt their work according to cultural differences. This work has the potential to assist other social workers in improving their readiness to work with foreigners. It can also be assumed that this work will serve as study and informational material