Considering the COVID-19 global public health crisis, this paper examines the socio-cultural, economic and psychosocial impact of the pandemic on urban refugees in Uganda. We analyse the living conditions of urban refugees that make it problematic for them to adhere to public health measures. Since COVID-19 is perceived as “imported”, refugees are assumed as its potential transmitters, consequently experiencing heightened stigma and isolation. Lack of culturally and linguistically accessible information and services excludes them from on-going efforts to prevent the pandemic. The lockdown has affected refugee livelihoods and increased income insecurity, sexual and gender-based violence and anxiety. Given the paucity of government-led services to contain the epidemic, we argue that contingency planning must involve refugees and their communities to access accurate and relevant information in appropriate languages. It is also important to build the capacity of frontline workers to understand the specific needs of refugees to deliver appropriate protection in the context of the pandemic.

Summary: High rates of absence due to stress, and issues with recruitment and retention of staff suggest that social work is a challenging profession. Despite this, many social workers gain a great deal of satisfaction from their role. Various studies have focused on stress management in social work. Less attention has been paid to how social workers maintain resilience in the face of challenges and thrive in their role. Drawing on a social constructionist approach to explore how social workers conceptualise emotional resilience in the context of their profession, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 13 social workers employed in local authority teams. Findings: The findings highlight how emotional resilience tended to be associated with stress management by the social workers interviewed. Organisational and structural factors were felt to threaten resilience more than the emotional intensity of working with service users. Application: When resilience is conceptualised as stress management, sources of adversity need to be addressed to enable social workers to survive. Resilience needs to be reconceptualised as positive adaptation to the challenges of the social work role in order to promote factors that enable workers to thrive. The insights from the study exhort us to re-examine the scope of social work organisations to enhance the resilience of their workers.

Surrogacy in the context of cross-border care has hitherto received little attention from the international social work community. In India, the provision of surrogacy services for foreign couples may be seen as part of the country’s wider health tourism industry. This article overviews current evidence on surrogacy in India, and discusses the extent to which proposed legislation, the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Bill and Rules 2009, satisfactorily addresses social workers’ concerns to ensure adequate protection of the interests of young Indian women engaged in surrogacy, as outlined in the International Federation of Social Workers’ policy on cross-border reproductive care.

Global forced migration rates are the highest since World War II. This article presents an overview of migration and presents an original argument as to the imperatives for social work. First, global trends are presented and forced migration is conceptualised as an international phenomenon. Second, global responses are explored with a focus on legal and protection frameworks. Finally, existing policy, practice and research gaps related to human mobility and forced displacement are examined, and recommendations for social work policy, research and practice are presented. The contextual influence of the Covid-19 pandemic is considered in this article.

Background: Children under 18 years old constituted more than half (52%) of the refugee population in 2017. Adolescent Sexual and reproductive health is an essential component of primary health care. Yet, not every refugee adolescent is able to access sexual and reproductive health services. Methods: Using quantitative data from 356 refugee adolescents and qualitative data (17 in-depth interviews and nine key informant interviews), we examine refugee adolescent sexual behaviour in Bidibidi settlement—the largest refugee settlement in Uganda using a binary logistic regression model. Results: The results show that 25% of refugee adolescents in Bidibidi refugee settlement had ever had sex. After controlling for all factors, results show that refugee adolescents aged 16–18 years (OR = 3.47; 95% CI = 1.09–10.94), males (OR = 17.59; 95% CI = 4.48–69.07), not in school (OR = 14.57; 95% CI = 2.20–96.35) were more likely to engage in sexual behaviour than their counterparts. Refugee adolescents who do not agree that a girl cannot get pregnant if she has sex while standing up (knowledge about getting pregnant) were significantly less associated with sexual behaviour (OR = 0.30; 95% CI = 0.10–0.85). Conclusions: Results from this study show that keeping refugee adolescents in school and providing sexual and reproductive health information are likely to delay refugee adolescents’ engagement in sexual behaviour. Therefore, there is need to promote keeping refugee adolescents in school in order to improve sexual and reproductive health of adolescent refugees living in low-income countries such as Uganda.

The protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice is a shared spirit manifested within all social work. Islands of local concern are directly affected by global stresses and inequalities, and the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development has created a space for repositioning social work globally in addressing these challenges. This article opens up definitions and examples of international social work, arguing the need for integrating an international outlook within social work education and policy in order that the emerging workforce, wherever they may be, are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values for international action.