In Greece, the coincidence of deep austerity occurring at the same time as the advent of large numbers of incoming asylum seekers and migrants has created an extremely pressing condition for social work practice. Social workers in state and municipal social services and in nongovernmental organizations are setting up frontline intensive interventions for arriving migrants and those staying in camps or resettlement programs, while they implement projects to tackle the humanitarian crisis for the most vulnerable and “new poor” indigenous population. They are dealing with emergent human needs of people, whose rights have been and/or are been violated. This article explores human rights as a unifying framework for actions and short- and long-term interventions and lobbying in regard to current austerity and migration contexts and discusses initiatives taken by social work educators to incorporate relevant content into curricula at the bachelor and master’s levels.

DOI: 10.1007/s41134-018-0084-1
ISSN: 2365-1792