Normative Boundaries Limiting Accessibility to Social Work for Queer People with a Refugee Background

Abstract

This article discusses the accessibility of social work from the viewpoints of queer people with a refugee background in Finland. It analyzes how intersecting norms create boundaries that limit accessibility to social work. Earlier research on social work with queer populations is scarce, especially in the Nordic context. This article aims to fill this gap. The data consist of qualitative interviews with queer people with a refugee background and with social workers carried out in Finland in 2019-2020 and are analyzed with thematic analysis. The theoretical approach follows critical social work research, queer studies, and decolonizing studies. The results suggest that accessibility to social work in reception centers and immigrant social services is shaped by heteronormativity and white normative neoliberalism. The normative boundaries become visible as silences, stereotypes, queer blindfolding, a sense of rush, a sense of distance, and a sense of alienation. The results suggest that anti‐oppressive practice is crucial in providing accessible social work to queer people with a refugee background. This calls for structural changes in social work education and neoliberal social work institutions.