ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on aspect of social work's growth and professionalisation since the late 1800s. There are many ways in which social development practice in social work takes the form of international social work. In order to examine these ideas in more detail, this chapter looks at three particular areas: practice with refugees, asylum seekers and forced migrants; 'humanitarian' programmes and projects; and the growth of professional social work and social work education. It presents a case study which shows two distinct aspects of the social development work that social workers may undertake with refugees: as a caseworker for an International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO), and as community workers. Social work needs to be 'recontextualised' through ongoing debates between practice and education. If it is seeking to engage with decolonisation, it is important that international social work maintains a self-critical role, and resists the temptation to rush in with understandings of what social justice and human rights must look like.
