ABSTRACT
Why should students, teachers and social workers concern themselves with international perspectives in their work? Is social work, on the basis of the varying legal situations, not limited to a certain location (Gray and Webb 2008)? Can there be such a person as an ‘international social worker’? Further critical questions are: isn’t there enough to be done at the local level; isn’t the idea of being globally effective perhaps part of the (often disappointed) fantasy of omnipotence that affl icts ‘do-gooders’, who imagine they can save the world, or does it have something to do with professional vanity – with wanting to polish up one’s own image, so as to be able to compete with others on the international stage (Webb 2003)?
