Social work with immigrants

52

Book revtews

these the maJor ones can be qulcklk stated thdt the VA hospital system be replaced by a system of Insurance credits ds part ofa comprehenslve health Insurance plan for all Amerlcans, that military disability compensatton evaluations be the responslblhty of an Independent medical board. that treatment of behavioral and psychlatrlc problems be mcreasmgly handled through outpatlent services transitional commumtles and resldentlal drug programs removed from hospitals, that veteran unemployment be tackled through economic polrcles designed to curb mflatlon while creatmg more Jobs mterestmg enough that men ~111 be proud to work at them, that GI Bill education benefits be expanded to cover at least partial tultlon payments and to provide for 48 months of schoolmg, and that. m all this more attention be given to younger veterans and to those from economltally disadvantaged posltlons If taken at all seriously these recommend&lons nre of course extremely radical both m the conslderatlon they give to the needs of veterans and m the depth of structural change m American society their lmplementatlon would require and stimulate Starr asserts (p 264) that “m thmkmg about human problems and social policy there are two complementary hazards On the one hand there IS a temptanon to deal only with mstltuttonal reality-the world as It 1s reflected m official records and reports On the other hand, there IS a temptation to focus narrowly on personal experience-the world as It IS reflected m the hves of mdlvlduals We have tried, wherever possible. to keep a balance between men and mstltutlons ” What though of the hazard ofassummg that a society that Invented and used, napalm and the rest of the deadly Vletnam arsenal can now take seriously the needs of Its own soldlers3 Here too there IS a complementarlty (m the sense of two sides of the same coin), of a frlghtenmg kmd That IS what Vietnam Veterans Against the War (now the Wmter Soldier Orgamzatlon) has been saymg for what by this time IS years, and that 1s why theirs has not been a hberal. much less a consumer, pohtlcs Starr does not mention VVAW and he has httle to say about the war Itself (though It 1s not difficult to surmise that he opposed It) That ISwhy his book The scars of Vietnam go deeper than any set of programs hopes both too much and too httle that we can get on with can ever reach And with a war like Vietnam there ~111 the tasks of reform wlthout confronting what we have always be a sense of absurdity and uselessness that makes become It all hard to put away To contmue dlscussmg benefits and programs seems at times hke mlstakmg pomts of lrrltatlon Harvard Utnvrrslty Pro91 am UI Cluncal, ERIC OLWN for the deeper sources of distress But men contmue to be P\ycholoqy and Puhlrc P~uctrce ’ hurt by bad discharges, drug problems, and lost Jobs, and so one goes on despite the beckoning false wisdom that It Cambrzdge, Massachusetts, U S A 1sall beslde the pomt (p 271)

‘prophetic survivors” (as Robert Jay Llfton has called Vietnam veterans), or ought one to mamtam-m deference to then actual dlverslty-no smgle nnage at all of such men’ Just after World War II m his powerful sermon “The Shakmg of the Foundations” Paul Tdhch spoke of Amencan soldlers walking through the rums of European cltles. “thmkmg of their own country. and seeing with visionary clarity the doom of rts towns and cities I know that this has happened and 1s still happenmg There are soldiers who have become prophets, and then message 1s not very dlfferent from the message of the ancient Hebrew prophets It IS the message of the shakmg of the foundations. and not those of their enemies, but rather those of their own country “* Tlihch wrote and preached these words m the late 1940’s when the complacency of the 1950’s still lay ahead hke a period of latency and the turmoil and confusions of the 1960’s and the Vietnam war could scarcely have been Imagmed, except perhaps by a man hke Tllhch whose compassion led him not only to care about the plight of those who fought the war but even to learn from them T~lhch’s dark mght of the soul as he watched the devastation of World War I as a mlhtary chaplam opened him to European exlstentlahsm and took him beyond hberal theology, durmg World War II he agam confronted hlmself and his culture III the most radical way If Paul Starr and his colleagues have any guldmg Image of the Vietnam veterans of whom they write It IS that they are misused consumers Perhaps that 1s an unsurprlsmg Image for a book about veterans wrttten under the aegis of Americd’s most famous consumer advocate And perhaps -smce we are all consumers and all misused-that image provides an easier pathway for those of us who are not veterans to connect our lmagmatlons and sympathies with those who are than Tllhch’s more vlslonary view If that IS the case then Starr’s book may serve a useful purpose m the tasks of reform This IS precisely Starr’s aspiration thdt an mhlbltlon of apocalyptic vlslon may permit an analysis which 1s concrete, programmatic. useful In the penultlmate paragraph of his book he writes

Starr 1s right all that IS not beslde the pomt And both the usefulness of his book and Its humane quaIltIes derive from his havmg remained (though with a bit of defenslveness about domg so) m a mlddle range of relative analytIca modesty Inevitably that restramt IS the book’s weakness as well, for one fimshes the task of readmg It (and reading It IS a task) with the feelmg of not having encountered much that IS new or fundamental It IS a serious. well-researched book. but essentially formless. wlthout passion or anger and wlthout d VISIOII,of either Vietnam veterans or the society that sent them to do its dirty work and now refuses to care for them Because Starr’s study IS a Nader report he concludes several of his chapters with pohcy recommendations Of * The Shuklng of the Foundatlony Sons. New York, 1948. p 7

Charles Scrlbner’s

Social Work with Immigrants by JULIET CHEETHAM Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and Boston, 1972 230 pp

$7 50 Wlthm the span of this tightly-woven book, Juliet Cheetham has offered a guide that 1s eminently practical, comprehenslve and humane She proposes no slmphstlc solutions to the problems of lmmlgrants, rather, she contmually remmds the reader of the precarious and sometImes bewlldermg balances that must be struck m workmg with newcomers to any country Although some of these balances are inherent m the general practtce of social work with any mdlvldual or group, others are unique or exaggerated by the pecuhar predicament of the Immigrant This book leaves one with the feehng of having walked a tightrope between cultural determmlsm and mdlvldual differences, between rural hfe and urban pressures. between

Book reviews world-wide migratory patterns and mdlvldual economic needs, between scores of other contradictory forces on both the Immigrants and the professionals who try to help them Cheetham begins with a dIscussIon of the ways m which a new immigrant increases the problems of other deprived city dwellers Although she focuses on those who have recently come to England from India, Pakistan and the West Indies, much of her material IS famlhar to those who have worked with Eastern Europeans or Southern blacks m industrial cltles of the United States, or with Southern European or North African immigrants to Northern Europe and Israel In fact, one valuable aspect of this book IS that, with some allowances, it IS pertinent to people everywhere who have left their homes seekmg a better life m a strange land The maJorlty of lmmlgrants are different enough m appearance, language and family structure to create hostlhty m those who share the same slums and are rivals for the same housmg,Jobs, and social services These differences demand special approaches from social workers based on a clear understanding of cultural orientation and personal Idlosyncrasles They may even require preferential treatment m order to bring immigrants mto the mainstream of society to whatever extent they desue Such special conslderatlon runs the risk of separating the immigrant even more from his neighbor and creates inherent conflicts which might otherwlse be ignored The author beheves (and this reviewer agrees) that the risk probably has to be taken, and the conflict dealt with, If immigrant groups are to mamtam self-respect and begin their move towards social and economic betterment The role of the social worker. as the author defines it, 1s to help mdlvldual immigrants with lmmedlate and longterm personal problems, to act as a bridge between lmmlgrants and the populace among whom they live, and to mfluence broad changes m social policy towards all deprived people so that immigrants may share m the general benefits She spells out the ways m which tradltlonal social work at& tudes may interfere with this triple role over-emphasis on mdlvldual pathology to the exclusion of economic and social problems. and difficulty m understanding and Identlfymg with behavior that often seems tradition-bound, restrictive and antithetical to the basic social work tenet of self-determination She firmly mslsts that the social worker must recogmze and overcome those hmltatlons One of the most useful chapters deals with the mstltutlons that most affect Immigrants’ htes (housing, schools, employment, the law). and the help commumty workers provide m dealing with authorities m these areas It also asserts that workers must recognize the need for structural changes m these mstltutlons Another insightful chapter 1s the one on the strains of mlgratlon. which treats the ordmary human miseries that are compounded for Immigrants, lonehness, homesIckness and tensions between husband and wife and between parents and children, often reaching to the second generation, and feelings of inadequacy because of color In this chapter, a particularly telling case hlstory IS presented which shows clearly the necessity of slow, careful, sensitive approaches to those of a radically different background There 1s. m still another fascmatmg chapter, a cauear agamst facile assumptions based on superficial knowledge of a national or cultural heritage MS Cheetham rightly points out that newcomers, by virtue of their move, have become part of a little-known immigrant sub-culture, that they may have been, even before their move, atyplcal of our vlslon of their common heritage, and that they may well have moved from country to city before leaving then home-

53

land and thereby become part of a new transitIona social pattern These are only a few possible variations on the theme of national and cultural traditions which must be considered if we are to avoid over-slmphficatton and mamtam our footing on the tightrope Ultimately, the author leaves to the mdlvldual social worker the choices of approaches, methods and goals, with the exhaustive mformatlon and analysis she has given the reader, a caring, perceptive professional should be able to avold some obvious pitfalls and offer real help to immigrants out of the morass of confusion, neglect, and misery that IS so often their fate Social Service Department.

ANN S BLJXBAUM

Chel\ea Me~norlul HoYpltal. Chelsea, Massachusetts, U S A

Sexual Identity. YORBURG Wiley

Sex Roles and Social Clhge, by BEITY Interscience, London and New York, 1974.

227 pp f5 60 At this writing there seems to be little surcease m the outpouring of scholarly and popular books on women’s roles, Issues, identities This flood-tide IS eagerly asslsted by publishers happy to capitalize on the current interest m women and by scholars who, for a variety of intellectual and other reasons, add their contrlbutlons Some of this new literature has shown marked improvement m Its quality and has enhanced our understanding. though most of It falls to reach the mark of the earlier classics of de Beauvolr or Frledan or the work of Epstein, Mitchell and others It IS an mdlcatlon of the growing maturity and quahty of this literature that a volume such as this should attempt to discuss male and female roles as well as to analyze the impact of social change on those roles The author reviews this issue through a series of chapters whlchprovrde the reader with a summary of recent materials on biological and sexual Identity, sexual identity m human history, itscontemporaryvarlatlons m the East and West, and sexual identity m America, followed by a discussion of issues and prospects These chapters yield very useful glimpses of recent literature, though one has the feelmg from time to time that her considerable knowledge ISnot fully cited m the notes A substantial bibliography would have helped to mcrease the volume’s usefulness for the begmmng social Science student or the interested layman Nonetheless these readers will be nicely served by the book, which 1s happily free of the obfuscations m certain social science writing and of the shrill quality of some femmlst tracts The volume’s shortcommgs point to some of the dlfficulties m handling such a complex topic, hence these madequacles instruct the reader m the considerations to which attention must be given If core issues are to be well understood and analyzed Thus, those whose work concerns Identity will not be happy with such statements as “identity IS the product of the roles the mdlviduals have played and the definitions of self contained m these roles” (p 4) or the assertion that because the term identity or Its equivalent IS not found m all languages or m history that men and women do not have identities as males and females Hlstorlcal accounts do not support this Students of social change who take an economic perspective would wish more discussion of how much economic forces subsequent to %Vorld War II have altered sexual Identities, or how much impact new sexual Identities have had on these economic forces Those whose analytical