Social Work Practice in Situations of Intercultural Misunderstandings

SUMMARY This article discusses research on the difficulties of practicing social work ie a multicultural and multiethnic context. The research is based on critical incidents involving 40 social workers in the most “ethnic” public social service centers in Montreal in 1990-1992. The most significant incidents of culture shock between workers from a developed western-type society and clients from developing non-western societies relate to a different notion of the role of social services, different ways of bringing up children, unequal relationships between men and women, a different concept of the family and to a different concept of physical and mental health. The author emphasizes that a better understanding of culture shock and an effort to identify and analyze these sensitive zones of intercultural encounter can have a definite impact on the practice and training of social workers.