Introduction

In Italian social work organisations, ethnic minority persons represent a significant share of service seekers (Caritas and Migrantes, 2013; Terre des Hommes and Cismai, 2021). The social work global statement on ethical principles considers ‘challenging discrimination and institutional oppression’ and ‘respect for diversity’ among its ethical principles (IFSW and IASSW, 2018), which are also are universally recognised as the core principles of social work (IASSW and IFSW, 2014). However, when implementing these principles to serve the needs of ethnic minorities, social workers face several challenges, wherein tolerating or respecting differences becomes insufficient, and misinterpretation and involuntarily discrimination can easily affect the perceptions and behaviours of social workers (Brotman, 2003; Hesse, 2004; Dominelli, 2008; Hodge, 2020).

Italy has only recently started realising the need for increased intercultural sensitivity and competence in social work practices. Social work education and continuing education programs still place limited priority on recognising ethnic differences, and the approaches to social work remains predominantly universalist. Therefore, addressing the needs of ethnic minority service users constitutes an important challenge.

Through the metaphor of an open/closed door, this chapter discusses the ‘accessibility and inclusivity’ of Italian social work organisations towards ethnic minorities. Symbolically, a door evokes a passage or a threshold whose opening and closing movements delimit the outside from the inside and vice versa. Social work organisations often undertake ‘door-opening practice’ that facilitate, welcome and encourage people towards the welfare system. Sometimes, the access to the system is mandated by law or forced by a referral, for example, in child protection cases. However, access to welfare system is often affected by ‘door-closing factors’ that discourage, limit or impede, both in the active and passive sense, the initiation of the required processes to help the people, groups and communities in need. Therefore, these circumstances warrant further research and interventions to solve the problem of accessibility. The chapter is based on three core ideas:

• • As human beings, all those in need must have the right to access welfare services and support to improve their living conditions. The implementation of these rights depends on several micro and macro factors (Tilbury and Thoburn, 2009; Valtonen, 2015).

• • Social work organisations do not operate the same way for everyone and can involuntarily discriminate against ethnic minority people.