CC BY
39
Evgenii Filin
Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University Department of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (1 year master's program)
THE PARTICIPATION OF VOLUNTEERS IN SOCIAL WORK WITH THE MIGRANT WORKERS' FAMILIES
Abstract:
This article presents the relevance of the study of social work with the migrant workers' families, the specifics of working with migrants, methods to attract volunteers to work.
The work of volunteers does not only complement and build social support to the families of migrants in the state and municipal levels, but also has a number of advantages in comparison with the activities of the official institutions and organizations.
Active volunteers work with the migrant families helps citizens of other countries to adapt to the new social conditions more easily.
Аннотация:
В статье представлена актуальность изучения социальной работы с семьями мигрантов, специфика работы с мигрантами, методы привлечения волонтеров к работе.
Работа волонтеров не только дополняет и развивает социальную поддержку семей мигрантов на государственном и муниципальном уровнях, но и обладает целым рядом преимуществ по сравнению с деятельностью официальных учреждений и организаций.
Активная работа волонтеров с семьями мигрантов помогает гражданам других стран легче адаптироваться в новых для них социальных условиях.
Keywords:
migrant, families of migrant workers, volunteers, social adaptation, social problems, social work, specifics of working with migrants, attract volunteers, motivation.
Ключевые слова:
мигрант, семьи мигрантов, волонтеры / добровольцы, социальная адаптация, социальные проблемы, социальная работа, специфика работы с мигрантами, привлечение волонтеров, мотивация.
Th e relevance of the study of social work with the families of migrant workers evokes great interest due to the intensification and globalization of migration processes in the world today, increasing in flow of refugees and displaced persons in conditions of social and political instability of the region, the movement of a significant number of able-bodied population in the backward economically undeveloped regions, the formation of the
international labor market. However, the society is virtually unprepared to solve the problems of migrants' effective socialization for their new living conditions.
The Russian Federation is being currently in the processes now, which associates with the influx of migrants, gaining the importance and requires effective regulation. That is due to the fact that modern Russian society is characterized by negative natural population growth and reduction in manpower of the country and, therefore, the increasing role of migration as a source of support and growth of the Russia's population.
In recent years, the migration takes on a considerable scale, becoming one of the factors of economic, social and cultural development of Russia. Year by year, the number of migrants in our country is increasing, as men come not only alone, but also with their families, often with children, planning a long stay in Russia. Many of them are employed and work in the trade, servicesand building [2, p. 86].
Migrants are the category of population, demanding attention and support from the state and society. Despite escaping from the adverse and sometimes even extremeconditions of life in their country, changing the places of residence, they receive the same problems that they cannot resolve on their own.
Among the major social problems of migrant families can be distinguished the following:
■ housing problem;
■ employment problem;
■ social and psychological adaptation.
Besides above-mentioned aspects many others can be added: the placement and temporary residence, obtaining registration of the residence, legal ignorance and lack of information where to get help; placement of children in school and kindergarten, poor knowledge of the language and cultural characteristics of new territory of stay, negative attitude of local people.
Social assistance to migrants must be maintained of mutually supportive social environment for people, changing their residence and entering into another social environment. Through social assistance the system of social relations and connections is formed, maintained, and changed, which includes a migrant, his family members in a new place. The effectiveness of such stages, increases their losses in activity. In addition, negative attitude is blocked with the respect to these people, including the aggressive influence of the environment associated with the development of market economy, problems in obtaining medical care, education, professional retraining, access to the job market. Thus, social assistance to migrants is expressed, on the one hand, raising the status and improving the situation of migrants, on the other - the impact on the environment, which included a migrant himself [4, p. 27].
Social adaptation is one of the main problems faced by migrant families. As a result, the social integration of migrants will be able to function normally, develop personal and professional respect in the society, as well as the local people in the country.
In social work with migrants there are two main types:
1. Applied social work (work with a particular person or a group of people in need of social assistance);
2. Organizational work (organization of social services, development of specific programs, activities, etc.).
The direction of the organizational social work is determined by the content of specific programs, developed by the state, non-governmental organizations, associations, and implemented at both the national and regional levels.
Practical social work with migrants is carried out in the following areas:
■ social,
■ socio-psychological,
■ socio-pedagogical,
■ socio-legal,
■ socio-medical,
■ financial,
■ socio-economic,
■ material,
■ socio-informational,
■ socio-labour.
Just in the practical work with the families of migrants may be and, as a rule, are involved the volunteers.
The work of volunteers does not only complement and build social support to the families of migrants in the state and municipal levels, but also it has a number of advantages in comparison with the activities of the official institutions and organizations. First of all, this advantage is the mobility and speed of response to the problem, targeting and contextual help in the application of methods and tools of social support.
We can talk about these forms of volunteers' participation in social work with the families of migrant workers:
■ analyzing family features, identifying its needs, problems and potential in solving them;
■ legal support of the family, to ensure compliance with its social security, the creation of conditions for realization of their rights and freedoms;
■ organization of dialogue communication, initiating joint activities, joint leisure, creativity;
■ psychological education of families, providing emergency in psychological assistance, preventive support and patronage;
■ modeling the situation and the development of specific programs targeted assistance.
One of the forms of social work with migrants is included in the creation of self-help groups and migrant organizations, such as the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Charitable Public Organization "Center for Assistance to Migrants", which was established on October 11, 2000. The organization provides comprehensive assistance to foreign citizens, stateless persons, including internally displaced persons, members of national minorities, the protection of their economic, social and political rights.
Over the past few years, the volunteer movement in Russia has become, if not popular, but very common. Especially after the Olympic Games in Sochi, when volunteers from across the country assisted in conducting sports forum. But volunteering is not limited by sports component. Now, in the conditions of constant migrants' growth when the increase in the number of migrants from Ukraine and other countries in Russia, volunteers are increasingly focused on the organization of social assistance to individuals and the families [5, p. 72].
According to the data on website of the Moscow city department of the Russian Red Cross on April 17, 2014, this organization attracts students of colleges and universities for medical and legal assistance to migrants and their families, including those awaiting deportation. The Red Cross' aid request letters were sent in educational institutions of Moscow city. Until the students began helping migrants, they were trained by the psychologists, then they held a series of trainings to understand the specifics of working with foreigners.
The international news agency "Fergana" published the article by the leader and coordinator of the volunteer organization "Observers of Petersburg", the activist group "Rights for All" Alexander Krylenkov of how volunteers of Petersburg are connected by this problem.
Volunteers call up to a police station and try to find out where there are people detained on suspicion of illegal stay on the territory of the Russian Federation. This is usually done in the evening, because during the day the relatives bring documents for many detainees and then they are released. Police leave for night only those, who are usually be judged. At night the activists carry about the food for them and in the afternoon go to the district courts to observe the proceedings.
Families of migrant workers are helped in Tula too. The Actors of Tula Drama Theater helped refugees from Ukraine. Refugee families did not have winter clothes. Despite the help from the social services in food and maintenance (offering), there was not money for the purchase of clothing. For three days the actors and their friends had collected the first batch of items. Besides winter clothes, Tula prepared for refugee some goodies - sweets and toys. After a couple of weeks, we managed to gather more substantial help, for the refugees, as more volunteers were involved.
Creation of some volunteer associations, funds and charitable organizations for refugees and displaced persons, help migrants to adapt more quickly to the new environment and provided with food, clothing, medicines and toys for children.
The specifics of working with migrants and local people must be included into consideration of interpersonal relationships by volunteers. The volunteer in this situation, is forced to act in several ways, expanding the scope of his competence, combining the individual, family, group and community work,
taking into account the entire set of values and mechanisms of social integration at the old place, the reasons of migration, the path of disintegration, as well as the peculiarities of cultural values and mechanisms of reintegration in a new place [1, p. 40].
The individual work consists of the entire setof methods: psychological, psychoanalytic, sociometric, medico-social, counseling and legal, methods of age psychology. Productive techniques in group work are "self-experience groups", "self-help groups", group psychotherapy, support neighboring communities (in places where migrants live), communities of patriotic character, representing the interests of immigrants.
In addition to individual and group work with the migrants themselves, for volunteer it is extremely important to cooperate with the authorities and with the media in shaping policies. In this regard, the promotion of human rights is important, explaining the rights of internally displaced persons [3, p. 254].
Social work of volunteers with migrant families is characterized by the number of features. In the course of this work it is necessary:
■ to create a tolerant attitude towards migrants, members of the volunteer movement and society in general;
■ to organize a meeting of volunteers with families in need of support;
■ gradually introduce volunteers to the family;
■ to explain to the volunteers the social, legal and psychological aspects of family support;
■ to develop a plan of cooperation of individual work with the family under the guidance of professionals;
■ to organize general meetings, where discussed the difficulties encountered by volunteers, determined to overcome them and solve organizational issues.
We see the following problems related to the work of volunteers and their families:
■ insufficient number of volunteers;
■ lack of young people's free time, the opportunity to use it at certain times (mostly in the second half of the day), which is inconvenient for families;
■ unwillingness of many government agencies to cooperate with the volunteers, their help, accompanied by the family.
Among the ways of attracting volunteers to work with the families of migrants motivation plays an important role. Motivation of volunteers can be divided into several subgroups:
■ religious;
■ social motivation (finding friends forever);
■ social responsibility (desire to improve people's lives).
It is known that any work is improved if there are additional mechanisms of motivation. Participation in public stocks followed by the lighting of the media is a form of promotion and dissemination of such practices among the population. As experience shows, volunteer work is carried out more successfully if the motivation for social assistance supported by the leadership of universities or local authorities as a whole.
Today, there are the following methods to attract volunteers to work:
■ advertising on radio and television;
■ the ability to fill and leave the questionnaire online in volunteer organizations;
■ carrying out in social centers meetings with people who have expressed a desire to help others;
■ billboards in urban space (social advertising in the streets, in public transport, etc.);
■ distribution of brochures, booklets, leaflets among the participants of public events;
■ placing ads on websites, blogs, social networks;
■ making presentations in schools, universities and other educational institutions.
Active volunteers' work with migrant's families helps citizens of other countries more easily to adapt to the new social conditions for them.
References:
1. Golikov V.D. The Social Portrait of a Migrant in Russia (the Beginning of the Second Decade of the 21 st century) // Bulletin VEGU. 2014. № 4 (72). P. 38-46.
2. Kondrashova N.V. Social problems of migration and migrants in the context of social work // Bulletin BSU. 2015. № 5. P. 84-90.
3. Prokusheva N.V. Practical methods of social work with the compelled migrants // Bulletin BSU. 2009. № 5. P. 254-259.
4. Romanjuk E.S. Features of training of students of social work with migrants // News VolgSTU. 2014. V. 12. № 15 (142). P. 26-28.
5. Tkacheva N.A. Social work with migrants as the factor of social safety // Omsk scientific bulletin. 2008. № 6 (74). P. 72-75.
