| Course | MSW 520 International Social Work |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with two replies |
| Length | About 400 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 520 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
When the Border Is Doing the Work: A Chicago Resettlement Case Manager, a Client's Widowed Mother in the Cox's Bazar Camps and the Part of the Job That Stops at a Line on the Map
The Easy Test, Rejected
Work is not international because it happens somewhere foreign or with someone born abroad. A case manager helping a Rohingya family in Chicago enroll children in school is doing local work in a second language. The harder test is which part of the job would break if the worker and the family stood on opposite sides of a border.
One Example, Named by Role
A., 31, resettled to Chicago in 2024 and works night shifts in a hotel laundry. A.'s widowed mother lives in a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, and has a swollen leg that the camp health post has twice sent home with painkillers. A. asked the resettlement case manager, "Can you get her seen?"
Everything the case manager knows how to do stops at the border. The case manager can help A. send money, but cannot make a referral in Bangladesh, cannot speak to the health post and cannot share A.'s information with anyone there without a consent process neither agency has agreed. That is where the work becomes international: not in the language or the culture, but in who is legally able to act.
Who Was Legally Able to Act
In the camps, the Bangladeshi government administers each camp through an appointed official, and humanitarian agencies work with its permission. Bangladesh has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, and Rohingya there are stateless (Milton et al., 2017). An NGO protection worker in the camp could act; the Chicago case manager could only find that person.
Why It Matters for Practice
Daily stressors in the camps, such as unsafe conditions and restricted movement, are tied to distress among Rohingya refugees, not only past trauma (Riley et al., 2017). A.'s worry about a mother's untreated leg is one of those stressors, carried to Chicago.
Replies
Reply to Grace: You described a hospital social worker with patients from Mexico. Add the second setting: what can a worker across the border do that you cannot?
Reply to Tomas: Your example of a migrant farmworker program is strong. Which part of it would stop if the family were sent back?
References
Milton, A. H., Rahman, M., Hussain, S., Jindal, C., Choudhury, S., Akter, S., Ferdousi, S., Mouly, T. A., Hall, J., & Efird, J. T. (2017). Trapped in statelessness: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(8), Article 942. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080942
Riley, A., Varner, A., Ventevogel, P., Taimur Hasan, M. M., & Welton-Mitchell, C. (2017). Daily stressors, trauma exposure, and mental health among stateless Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Transcultural Psychiatry, 54(3), 304-331. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461517705571
What the MSW 520 Week 1 assignment asks for
The first discussion asks what makes social work international, and it wants a claim with one worked example rather than a survey of globalization. Reject the easy answer that work is international whenever it happens abroad or with someone born elsewhere. Offer a sharper test and apply it to one example, named by the worker's role and setting. Say who was legally able to act in each place, since that is usually where the border does its work. Keep definitions short and reach practice early. Use sources a practitioner would actually open, such as research on the population or the legal setting. Replies should add a second setting to a classmate's example, asking what a worker on the other side of the line could do.
How the MSW 520 Week 1 example is put together
The opening rejects foreign location as the test and proposes instead asking which part of a job would break if worker and family stood on opposite sides of a border. The example is A., 31, resettled in Chicago, whose widowed mother in a Cox's Bazar camp has a swollen leg. The post shows the case manager unable to refer, speak to the health post or share information across the border. A section on who could act explains that camps are run by Bangladeshi officials, that Bangladesh has not signed the Refugee Convention and that Rohingya there are stateless, citing Milton et al. (2017). Riley et al. (2017) connects the client's worry to daily stressors in the camps. Two replies ask classmates what a worker across the border could do.
Reading the MSW 520 Week 1 grading rubric
Faculty credit a claim about what makes practice international more than any description of a place. A post that reads as a trip report, a setting and a feeling with nothing a worker could be graded on, loses the most. Definition posts that reach practice only in the final sentence come next. Credit goes to an example named by role, in which the border visibly changes who can act. Faculty check that the legal setting is described accurately and that sources are ones a practitioner would use, cited in APA style. An example that would work just as well with no border in it misses the week's point. Replies earn credit for adding a second setting to a classmate's case.
Common MSW 520 Week 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
The most expensive version is the trip report: a country described with feeling and no practice question in it. A close second is the definition post that spends its length on globalization. A third problem belongs to this week alone: an example that works the same with no border, such as a language barrier inside one city. Some posts also cite news coverage where research or legal sources were needed. If your example is different, perhaps a child welfare case with a parent deported to Guatemala or a hospital patient whose family is in Manila, the same test applies: what stops at the line, and who on the other side can act. A post drafted for your example would name the role and the authority on each side.
Get a MSW-520 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the assignment text or the rubric your classroom posted, plus the country or population your section fixed, and a Week 1 post is written to it and returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one costs nothing. Where your section sets a word ceiling or a reply count, say so and the example is built to fit.
More MSW 520 papers and MSW samples
- MSW 520 Week 2: International Agency Profile
- MSW 520 Week 3: Displacement Case Study
- MSW 520 Week 4: Resettlement Service Plan
- MSW 520 Week 5: Intervention Adaptation Write-up
- MSW 520 Week 6: Diaspora Community Assessment
- MSW 520 Week 7: Cross-border Case Consultation
- MSW 520 Week 8: International Practice Paper
- MSW 521 Week 1: Discussion Post
- MSW 517 Week 1: First Action on a Referral Post
- MSW 524 Week 1: Discussion Post
- MSW 516 Week 1: Efficacy Expectation Term Post
MSW 520 Week 1 questions, answered
Can the example in my post come from work inside the United States?
Yes, and it often makes the stronger post. A domestic office that resettles arrivals, reunites families across a border or serves households whose documents sit in a registry abroad is doing the work this course is about. What the classroom is checking is whether the national line changes the worker's options, not whether the worker holds a passport.
How long should a first post run?
Most classrooms publish a length, and where none is given, a post between two and three hundred words holds one claim and one example without padding. Length is not what separates these posts. A short post carrying a permission sentence and a named institution outperforms a long one that arranges definitions in a row and reaches practice at the end.
Does the post need a country I have some connection to?
No connection is required and none is graded. What is graded is whether you can say something concrete about how services work there, which usually means picking a setting where the organizations publish in a language you read. A country chosen for personal reasons and described from memory is weaker than one chosen because its material is available.
Where can I find a free MSW 520 Week 1 sample paper?
A complete MSW 520 Week 1 discussion post arguing that a border decides when practice becomes international is on this page, with replies and margin notes.
What test for international practice does the MSW 520 Week 1 sample use?
Whether any part of the job would break if the worker and the family stood on opposite sides of a border, which is a question about who is legally able to act.