A couple of weeks ago I had a chat ('interview') with B.M. who works as a refugee settlement worker for a NGO in Brisbane. The organisation would meet even the narrowest definition of a faith-based non-profit organisation (exactly what defines a faith based organisation is highly contested ground). Although this organisation does not discriminate on faith-background when hiring employees, B.M. just happens to be a religious fit. In fact, she self-identifies as a faith-based or faith-motivated social worker. For her this doesn't mean a job in which one never has to navigate or compromise between corporate expectation and deeply held religious values. For her it is about developing skills, knowledge and networks, so that eventually she will be in a position to achieve seamlessness between her personal, religious and professional lives.
Some interesting snippets from our conversation:
On compromise:
"there are times when I achieve not even close to what I'm supposed to in terms of getting tasks done, getting 'outcomes' etc, but one thing I see in the life of Jesus was that he had time for people and didn't brush them off just to get the next thing done"
I'd love to have the freedom and funds to do projects which may not necessarily have quantifiable outcomes""
On her ideal faith-based practice framework:
"I'd like to have a social work practice where I'm only accountable to God. Right now, I'm accountable to [my employer] and what they want to achieve, and we're accountable to [our funding body] and what they want to achieve. I would ideally like to be only guided by the question "God, what do you want me to do today." And I imagine the answer to that question would still include a lot of the stuff I do currently but the way of relating to clients would be radically different."
On how her position in a faith-based organisation compares to previous secular social work positions:
"A lot of the people who work for the organisation, in my eyes, are really Christ-like, even though they're not Christian at all. The ethos of the organisation is based on certain Christian principles and I think those principles are attractive to people who don't identify as Christian or religious at all . Perhaps there's something of the original Christian culture still there"
On media coverage of asylum seekers:
"Every time I tell people I work with refugees, they'll go 'so what do you think about boat people?' or something and try to start this political argument with me. Honestly I feel [because of the extremely negative media coverage] that some people view it as 'traitorous' to our nation to help these 'illegals' as they see it….I think some people think refugees shouldn't be a part of our society and therefore they shouldn't be helped. Like, 'we need to help our own first'. You really do get the vibe from some people that you're a 'traitor to the nation' or something"
On the potential of the media to be a force for positive public reception of refugee issues:
"I think it takes more than media, I think it takes physical, real world rubbing shoulders with people. Maybe media can facilitate that. I don't know how, but maybe."
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