A Human Rights Approach to Macro Social Work Field Education with Unaccompanied Immigrant Children

In recent years, record numbers of unaccompanied immigrant children have migrated to the USA, with 2019 being the highest year yet. The majority of unaccompanied children have overcome traumatic experiences and violations of their human rights in their home countries or on their journey to the USA, and/or in US detention centers. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights outlines guaranteed basic rights for every person everywhere, and the National Association of Social Workers code of ethics outlines social workers’ responsibility to challenge social injustices. Social workers have a role in advocating for the human rights of all people, including unaccompanied children. Macro social work roles—including roles such as advocacy and policy work, research, capacity building, community education, and management—are critical to addressing and ameliorating the human rights violations faced by unaccompanied immigrant children (UC). In this article, we introduce unaccompanied children as a vulnerable population, outline the human rights violations they commonly face in the USA, and offer implications and suggestions for schools of social work, social work curricula, and social work field education. We believe that effective training and field placements will better prepare the next generation of social workers and create a pipeline of knowledgeable professionals to help unaccompanied children and their families. Therefore, we highlight ways in which schools of social work, field placement agencies, field supervisors, and students can work to advance the lives of UC by offering specific examples of macro roles for interns.