Gain insights into the significance of social workers with a migration background in migration counselling. Markus Brenn outlines the opportunities and challenges that arise from social workers’ migration backgrounds: language skills and personal experience can facilitate access to clients, but at the same time they can also raise expectations and thereby challenge the social workers’ professional distance. Grounded in a systems-theoretical framework and qualitative interviews with social workers, the author explores these dynamics in depth. In doing so, he illuminates not only the societal function of migration counselling, but also the competences required for effective practice.
