With social transformations taking place rapidly on an international scale, and the close links between the local and the global, the international dimension of social work takes on particular importance today.
The local challenges facing social workers are increasingly linked to global processes such as financial globalization and the internationalization of labor markets, which are leading to growing wealth disparities, the crumbling of the welfare state and social protection policies, and the more or less forced displacement of populations. On the one hand, the generalization and standardization of certain policies on a global scale have differentiated effects on social problems (as well as on the ways of responding to them) whose singularity needs to be understood in order to propose better adapted social actions. On the other hand, the individuals, families, groups and communities with which our social workers interact are increasingly culturally diverse. Students must be trained, both in the classroom and during their field placements, to develop sensitivity to cultural differences and acquire the knowledge to develop a critical analysis of the forces at play.