Positioning social workers without borders within green social work: Ethical considerations for social work as social justice work

Abstract

‘Green social work’ is a new theoretical concern for the social work profession and specifically for social work with people crossing borders. Social work, while addressing environmental factors, whether in the family, housing or poverty, that form the backdrop to service users’ lives, pays little attention to the natural environment (Dominelli, 2012). However, the theoretical bridge between environmental degradation, and mass movement of people is well-forged in the social and environmental sciences (Gemenne, 2011; Bettini et al., 2016; UNICEF, 2017; Gemenne and Blocher, 2017; Climate and Migration Coalition, 2017).