Barriers to effective social work practice with unaccompanied refugee minors: insights from practitioners

Unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) in Jordan are a highly vulnerable group facing complex psychosocial, legal, and protection challenges within already strained service systems. Despite the key role of social workers, they encounter systemic and contextual barriers that hinder effective interventions. Limited research has explored these barriers. This study examines challenges constraining social workers’ ability to provide effective interventions to URMs. A qualitative approach was employed, involving in-depth interviews with ten social workers providing care for URMs at the International Medical Corps in Jordan. Thematic analysis identified challenges across organisational, cultural, and policy dimensions. Findings reveal four main challenges: cultural barriers and shortage of suitable foster families, professional burnout due to high caseloads and emotional strain, trauma-related behavioural difficulties among URMs, including aggression, emotional withdrawal, and resistance to decisions, and institutional and policy constraints limiting timely and effective interventions. Addressing these challenges requires multilevel responses, including supervision, psychosocial support, and trainings.