This article is about the relationship between social workers and the asylum seekers and the welfare provision. The tendency in the literature nowadays leads towards a discourse largely portraying social workers, usually in the statutory sector, as collaborating with immigration controls, to inform the UK Border Agency about people with uncertain immigration. The authors suggest that the reality of social work with adult asylum seekers is much more complex, challenging and potentially transformative. Both authors, both qualified social workers, draw on their experiences of work with adult asylum seekers within a voluntary agency in north-west England. They argue that the approach of the work undertaken provides a useful template for social
