abstract: 'The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 laid bare how migrant and immigrant

  workers are ``essential workers{''''} in the critical industries of

  agriculture/farming, meat production, restaurants/hospitality and health

  care in the United States. In this article, we discuss this demand for

  migrant labor and implications for social work. We argue that a

  labor-focused framework as critical perspective would complement the

  rights-based, participatory frameworks that inform social work

  scholarship and practice with immigrants, together accounting for

  systemic racism, global and national inequality, and discrimination

  embedded in immigration and social policies and forms of practice. In

  the first place, by recognizing how non-immigrants and immigrants are

  inextricably linked through structural means of production and

  consumption, social workers would develop deeper empathy toward

  immigrant clients and communities, leading to interactions that are

  empowering and affirming, and thus effective. Direct practice

  interventions would be richly informed, as practitioners account for

  immigrants'' work environment, such as difficult work conditions, low

  wages and lack of benefits, that often impact clients and families. A

  labor-focused perspective also points to areas of social work advocacy

  and meso/macro practice, those focusing on workers'' rights and

  immigration policy.'
affiliation: 'Benson, OG (Corresponding Author), 1080 S Univ Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
  USA.

  Benson, Odessa Gonzalez; Cross, Fernanda; Montalvo, Christopher Sanjurjo, Univ Michigan,
  Sch Social Work, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA.'
author: Benson, Odessa Gonzalez and Cross, Fernanda and Montalvo, Christopher Sanjurjo
author-email: odessagb@umich.edu
author_list:
- family: Benson
  given: Odessa Gonzalez
- family: Cross
  given: Fernanda
- family: Montalvo
  given: Christopher Sanjurjo
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1080/15313204.2022.2070894
earlyaccessdate: MAY 2022
eissn: 1531-3212
files: []
issn: 1531-3204
journal: JOURNAL OF ETHNIC \& CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN SOCIAL WORK
keywords: 'Pandemic; coronavirus; immigration; migration; immigration; social work

  practice with immigrants and refugees; labor; employment; migrant labor'
language: English
month: SEP 3
number: 3-5, SI
number-of-cited-references: '25'
orcid-numbers: Cross, Fernanda/0000-0002-0770-9464
pages: 275-279
papis_id: 23f9e290d800280d6568600b5f70c9b4
ref: Benson2022demandingmigrantimmi
researcherid-numbers: Cross, Fernanda/AGV-1534-2022
times-cited: '0'
title: 'Demanding migrant/immigrant labor in the coronavirus crisis: critical perspectives
  for social work practice'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000800870400001
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '6'
volume: '31'
web-of-science-categories: Social Work
year: '2022'