Colleen Lundy

Entre 1975 et 1997, quelque trois millions de personnes en provenance du Vietnam, du Cambodge et du Laos ont fui les atrocités commises dans leur pays d'origine, et plus de 210 000 d'entre elles se sont réinstallées au Canada. Bien que cette histoire soit connue en partie, peu d'ouvrages ont été écrits à ce sujet, en particulier du point de vue des personnes réfugiées elles-mêmes. Cœurs en liberté est un riche recueil d’histoires orales basé sur des entretiens avec 145 anciens réfugiés, qui partagent des récits profondément émouvants sur l’oppression, les camps de concentration, le génocide et les fuites périlleuses par voie terrestre et maritime. Ces survivants reviennent sur leurs premières impressions du Canada : la neige et le froid inhabituels, la gentillesse inattendue des voisins et quelques expériences de racisme. À travers leurs expériences, nous découvrons les forces et les faiblesses des programmes d’accueil des réfugiés du Canada. Ces récits révèlent que l’attachement des réfugiés au Canada s’est renforcé au fil des ans et que les politiques de multiculturalisme ont facilité ce processus. La population canadienne a joué un rôle décisif dans le premier mouvement massif de personnes réfugiées grâce à des programmes de parrainage privé alors nouvellement créés – un rôle pour lequel les Nations Unies ont décerné la médaille Nansen au peuple canadien en 1986. À l’heure où nous évaluons les avantages des politiques et des programmes d’immigration et d’accueil des réfugiés, Cœurs en liberté documente la vie et les contributions de personnes qui ont subi les pires excès de la guerre pour reconstruire leur vie au Canada.

Between 1975 and 1997 some three million Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians fled atrocities in their home countries, with over 210,000 resettling in Canada. While this history is partly known to some Canadians, little has been written about it, especially from the perspectives of the refugees themselves. Hearts of Freedom is a rich oral history based on interviews with 145 former refugees, sharing deeply moving accounts of oppression, concentration camps, genocide, and perilous escapes over land and sea. Survivors reflect on their first impressions of Canada – the unfamiliar snow and cold, the unexpected kindness of neighbours, and occasional encounters with racism. Through their experiences, we come to understand the strengths and weaknesses of Canada's refugee programs. These stories reveal how refugees' attachment to Canada grew over the years and how multiculturalism policies facilitated that. Ordinary Canadians played a decisive role in the first mass refugee movement through newly created private sponsorship programs – a role for which the United Nations awarded the Nansen Medal to the Canadian people in 1986. Coming at a time when we are assessing the benefits of immigration and refugee policies and programs, Hearts of Freedom documents the lives and contributions of people who have suffered the worst excesses of war to rebuild their lives in Canada.

Social workers take pride in their commitment to social and economic justice, peace, and human rights, and in their responses to related inequalities and social problems. At a time when economic globalization, armed conflict, and ecological devastation continue to undermine human rights and the possibilities for social justice, the need for linking a structural analysis to social work practice is greater than ever. The second edition of this popular social work practice text more fully addresses the connection between social justice and human rights. It includes a discussion of social work's role in promoting peace and responding to environmental problems. It also places a greater attention on the links between social work theories/concepts and practice skill/responses. The text has been updated and revised throughout with four new chapters: social work and human rights, cultural competence and practice with immigrant communities, social work and mental health communities, and practice with couples and families. Detailed case studies demonstrate the integration of theory, policy, and practice.

One Hundred Years of Social Work is the first comprehensive history of social work as a profession in English Canada. Organized chronologically, it provides a critical and compelling look at the internal struggles and debates in the social work profession over the course of a century and investigates the responses of social workers to several important events. A central theme in the book is the long-standing struggle of the professional association (the Canadian Association of Social Workers) and individual social workers to reconcile advancement of professional status with the promotion social action. The book chronicles the early history of the secularization and professionalization of social work and examines social workers roles during both world wars, the Depression, and in the era of postwar reconstruction. It includes sections on civil defence, the Cold War, unionization, social work education, regulation of the profession, and other key developments up to the end of the twentieth century. Drawing on extensive archival research as well as personal interviews and secondary literature, the authors provide strong academic evidence of a profession that has endured many important changes and continues to advocate for a just society and a responsive social welfare state. One Hundred Years of Social Work will be of interest to social workers, social work students and educators, social historians, professional associations and anyone interested in understanding the complex nature of people and institutions.