Immigrants’ Integration in the Global North: Ubuntu-informed Social Work

This chapter aims to illustrate and provide examples of how Ubuntu can be used by social workers in countries outside the African continent to engender meaningful social integration and social inclusion of migrants from Africa or other societies that are driven by values of collectivism and communalism. Particular attention is drawn to Global North, a society of individualism and ways of life that are an antithesis to the ways of life of people who originate from the Ubuntu kind of societies—therefore creating significant differences, and most importantly posing considerable challenges for people originating from an Ubuntu setting while getting immersed in such a society. The intention is to contribute to the call for the application of Ubuntu philosophy as a major practice guide when working with immigrants especially those from Africa, and possibly integrating the whole idea of Ubuntu in everyday life of people in the Global North as a form of living a life of tolerance and inclusion. We reflect on some relevant literature on this subject, review and analyse it in the current context of immigration and the associated policies across the Global North. We conclude by calling for an Ubuntu-informed practice amongst professionals, particularly social workers, while practising with immigrants of especially African origin. We also embody a utopic idea of instilling Ubuntu values in the universal population in Global North societies as a way of fostering meaningful social integration, though it is acknowledged that Ubuntu itself has notable weaknesses.