Filling the Gap? Romanian Social Workers’“Migration” Into the UK

The recent past decades have seen an increased transnational mobility among
internationally educated social workers. For example, the UK social work system has
seen an increased level of social workers recruited from abroad in certain fields of
practice, mainly due to the staff shortage. This opinion paper aims to draw attention to
the challenges faced by internationally qualified social workers in their efforts to integrate
and adapt their practice to the UK system, with a focus on Romanian social workers,
identified as a numerically significant group of ‘trained abroad’ social workers. The
paper also highlights the lack of research available to understand the factors contributing
to the social work professional immigration into the UK and is examining the connection
between professional acculturation and successful practice. The article aims to act as a
call for research and collaboration between social work providers and professional
regulatory bodies, both in Romania and UK, as well as employers in order to develop
focused research and practice guidance in this area.