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Cultural Competency has become a concept central to the professional practice of social work. It is endorsed because it is perceived that cultural competency of social work practitioners results in encounters with their clients that are more appropriate in manner, and more helpful in outcome. Originally a critique of failures of conventional practice, cultural competency has become so widespread that its meaning has become obscured. / This study examines the literature on Cultural Competency. It includes the preceding work on cross-cultural, multi-cultural and diversity literature. It examines definitions of culture in the context of competency and what is included and excluded; historical and regional development and its relationship to concepts such as ethnicity, race, class, identity and cultural indices. It also reviews what is considered best Social Work practice at this time and what problems can develop from this perspective.

In this study, two parallel themes will be explored. One is the counsellor's understanding of their own cultural identity and how this affects their practice with people of similar or different cultures than their own. Secondly, the study attempts to discover counselling skills that are most useful in working with members of the non-dominant culture. Data was collected from eight participants using two interview formats--a semi-structured interview guide and an unstructured interview design. Examination of this data yielded the following major themes: issues of counsellor's self identity, client's perceptions of counsellors, common practice issues, and cultural matching of counsellor and client. Important insights about counsellor's cultural self-identity and its relationship to practice were presented. No definitive cross-cultural practice skills were articulated, although many strategies for working with difference were addressed.

A connection is often drawn between the way the media represent ethnic minorities and the way majorities perceive them. This paper seeks to investigate further this link by drawing parallels between media portrayal of ethnic minorities in Bulgaria and the majority's attitude towards them. In addition it introduces the results of an online survey in which 250 people took part that directly studies the effects of negative media portrayal on the subject's attitude towards ethnic minorities in Bulgaria.

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The following thesis in library- and information science is a qualitative, comparative analysis of the relationship between the minority populations in Sweden and Finland and the library. The objective with the thesis is to investigate how the state is working to promote minority groups at the library and what lead to today’s situation. The investigation starts, as regards time, with the European charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which was published 1992 and ends with the establishment of the Swedish library law 2014. The method that is used will be a comparative analysis that aims to compare Sweden and Finland. The study is based on Edmund Dahlströms theories regarding ideologies and politics that have been ruling society’s social and legal framework for minorities. The analysis consists of one chapter where both comparison and conclusions are included. It’s discovered that Sweden and Finland have a similar legislation regarding minority languages, with the exception that Finland doesn’t have a universal legislation for the national minorities and therefore, to a degree, excludes the territorially boundless minorities. This is also the case in their library law. Sweden has in their new library law a paragraph where the national minorities are included. This despite the fact that Finland had a system for national minorities before Sweden, who started working towards that first until after the European charted had been decreed.

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Academic researches suggests that Rroma face challenges of overcoming poverty, improving access to education, increasing employability and improving health. This thesis describes a qualitative investigation into the role of education to ensuring upward mobility for Rroma. Using a purposive sample, the research analysed the ethnic make-up of Rroma individuals and found that contrary to uninformed perceptions, Rroma community is immensely diverse and can be described through two generic types: a Traditional Gypsies type and a Modern Rroma type. The Traditional Gypsies type would generally describe the Gypsies who at individual or collective level still preserve in their day to day life a collection of Gypsy ethnic practices. By contrast, the Modern Rroma type would refer to those Rroma who having began recently or generations back a process of ethnic transition and/or assimilation into the wider Romanian community now share only a few traditional ethnic practices. Next, the research classified occupations encountered, analysed whether intra-generational and inter-generational social mobility occurs and found that Rroma community experiences a dynamic pattern of multi-directional and multi-speed social mobility as well as a distinct process of ethnic transition. Ethnic transition describes the process through which respondents shed ethnic practices and move away from distinct Gypsy ethnic identities towards "symbolic" identities. Thirdly, the research analysed the impact of education on social trajectories and found that contrary to uninformed prejudice, a majority of Rroma tend to hold education in high esteem and that they do benefit socially from it. Far from questioning its relevance or fearing it, formal education is accepted and aspired to by Traditional Gypsies who understand its potential impact upon their living standard. Modem Rroma too, value education though their ideal attainment levels tend to be higher than those of Traditional Gypsies. The gap between abstract preferences and real school participation is maintained less by discrimination alone but by a rational choice evaluation through a cost (including discrimination) benefit analysis. Formal education is essential for Rroma's social mobility though Traditional Gypsies necessitate lesser levels than Modern Rroma who, to compete in the Gadje world, require the same amount of education for comparative occupation levels as other members of the wider community.