ABSTRACT
Compared to ethnic minority client families, caseworkers either have a preference for matching or not – none had no opinion on the matter, suggesting they are (more) aware of the associated pros and cons. Contrarily, there is great diversity among client families: some prefer an ethnically matched caseworker, others prefer a non-match and others still have no preference at all (usually based on a belief that all caseworkers are equally trained, skilled, experienced and/or competent and so their ethnicity was irrelevant):
Doesn’t matter. Most important, if she’s experienced enough to deal with different background, different cultures. [FAM_Lebanese]
They should know what your needs are, they should listen to you. Maybe someone, not even from your background might listen to you, so [caseworkers] all the same. It’s a mixed country. [FAM_Lebanese]
[Caseworker]’s doing a good job, so [I] wouldn’t change anything. They do what I ask. Everyone is the same in their job, they know what they’re doing. Doesn’t matter if you’re white, black or green. They must get taught at school or whatever, so they all the same. [FAM_Dutch]
Thus, choice for client families is critical to good practice. It cannot be assumed that just because a family is of ethnic minority background they will or will not prefer to have an ethnically matched caseworker.
