Silencing the professional voice: Institutional barriers and policy implications for Bedouin social workers in Israel

Social work in Arab society in Israel

The development of social work in Arab society in Israel has been challenged by structural inequality and professional dilemmas: underfunding in comparison to Jewish bureaux, culturally inappropriate government service provision, and the lack of proportionate representation of Arab social workers in decision-making and policy development by social service institutions (Mahajne and Bar-On, 2021a).

A key challenge for Arab minority social workers is ‘Arabization’ or indigenization of social work practices to conform to local cultural and religious values. This has been hindered by Israeli social work education, which is dominated by ‘Western’-oriented curricula, the limited number of Arab faculty members in Israel’s academic institutions, and inadequate incorporation of Arab cultural and religious perspectives into intervention models (Mahajne and Bar-On, 2021a).

Recent Israeli recognition of social work degrees from Palestinian and Jordanian institutions has led many Arab students from Israel to turn to these institutions, thus increasing Arab representation in the field. However, practising their new knowledge in the Israeli welfare system poses significant challenges (Mahajne and Bar-On, 2021a). Heavy workloads, emotional burnout, a lack of professional recognition, and structural discrimination cause many Arab social workers to drop out of the Israeli welfare bureaux after a short period and transfer to private-sector careers (Mahajne, 2024). Moreover, the Israeli Social Workers’ Union has failed to adequately represent Arab social workers, rarely including them in leadership roles and neglecting to promote their specific needs in union policies and collective bargaining agreements (Mahajne, 2023).

Nevertheless, strengths-based approaches have produced promising work with Arab communities, especially among at-risk populations. Identifying individual and community strengths, Arab social workers have overcome structural barriers to empower their service users and foster resilience. However, using such strengths-based methodologies necessitates appropriate systematic assessments, something still sorely lacking in social work training programmes and current service delivery models (Sulimani-Aidan et al., 2024).

The limited emphasis on strengths-based or community-oriented approaches described here does not reflect a uniquely Israeli or Palestinian deficiency. Rather, it mirrors a broader global tension within social work education between clinically oriented, individualized models and macro or community-based practice. As Reisch (2016) has argued, social work programmes internationally have increasingly gravitated towards therapeutic specialization, often at the expense of structural, community-based, and policy-oriented interventions. In this sense, the training gaps identified in the present context should be understood as a localized manifestation of a wider academic and professional trend. However, in minority and politically marginalized settings, such global tendencies may have intensified consequences, particularly for the development of professional voice, community responsiveness, and structurally informed practice.

Although Arab social workers struggle with structural inequities, there are some signs of progress because of efforts to apply Arabization, the demand for professional recognition, and, as noted, the use of strengths-based interventions. The situation described above clearly necessitates further research and policy changes to rectify current disparities and provide more equitable social work to address the needs of Arab communities.

Higher education for Palestinian-Arab students in the Palestinian Authority territories

Between 9000 and 15,000 Palestinian-Arab students from Israel were enrolled in Palestinian Authority (PA) colleges in the 2021–2022 academic year. Many of them study abroad because of structural barriers to accessing prestigious studies, such as medicine, paramedical professions, and social work, in Israel, where even excellent students face fierce competition for the limited available places. Another challenge is gaining a command of the primary language of instruction, Hebrew, which is their second language (Haj-Yehia and Arar, 2017; Mazawi, 2005).

Despite Israel’s recognition of most PA university degrees, enabling graduates to enter the Israeli job market, the prestige and acceptance of foreign degrees in Israel are often problematic and contested, particularly in professions requiring licensing or in competition for public-sector posts (Haj-Yehia and Arar, 2017).

Colleges in the PA offer several advantages for Arab students from Israel: first, the language of instruction is Arabic. The students live and study in a predominantly Palestinian environment, for many of them near their homes in Israel, so that commuting is a viable option (Segev and Alhuzail, 2024). Conservative Muslim families perceive Palestinian campuses as more conservative and safer, especially for their daughters, than the distant and more foreign modern Jewish campuses in Israel (Bruhn, 2006). Palestinian colleges also have more flexible admission criteria. They do not require psychometric testing, and they admit students with a moderate or high Tawjihi (high school matriculation) score. They offer intensive in-college weekend programmes, so students from Israel can continue their studies from home during the week.

These advantages are offset by significant disadvantages. Private PA colleges charge significantly higher tuition than the subsidized tuition rates in Israel (Haj-Yehia and Arar, 2017; Herrera, 2007). Despite Israel’s recognition of the degrees from these colleges, their academic reputations are often considered inferior to those of leading Israeli universities, and some employers require additional licensing exams or supplementary coursework.

The need for Hebrew language skills that impedes Palestinian students’ entry to Israeli academia also constitutes a factor impacting PA university graduates’ integration into Israeli society and its labour market. Participants’ educational trajectories should also be understood as shaped by both structural constraints and individual choices. Studying in PA colleges provides important cultural and linguistic advantages but also entails predictable challenges regarding Hebrew proficiency and professional integration into Israeli welfare systems. While studying in PA colleges, these students rarely need to use Hebrew and have limited interaction with Jewish culture. This isolation may weaken their Hebrew proficiency for both professional and social use, hindering their smooth transition into Israeli workplaces, particularly in multicultural professional environments (Mahajne and Bar-On, 2021a; Segev and Alhuzail, 2024).

Social work education from foreign institutions: Integration, implications, barriers, and challenges

Increased globalization of higher education has led many social work students to pursue degrees abroad to better understand social issues and professional practices. However, students studying abroad face challenges in integrating into their host countries or reintegrating after studies abroad in their home countries, including their local language proficiency (translating professional terminology), cultural competence, and recognition of their qualifications gained abroad. Sin et al. (2025) argue that policy inconsistencies and inappropriate institutional support mechanisms can hinder international students’ social and cultural integration.

To navigate different cultural contexts, foreign-trained professionals need to overcome cultural adaptation and to cope with professional and social expectations that differ from those in their home countries (Nohl et al., 2014). This means that the absorbing institutions should provide effective support systems to facilitate foreign-qualified social workers’ transition into their new workplace (Sin et al., 2025). Social networks and local welfare workers and teachers can play an important role in supporting the integration of these professionals, as they attempt to adapt to their new environment (Everaers and Van Der Laan, 2003). These dynamics reflect the tension between professional autonomy and politicized welfare governance, documented in broader social work theory.

Although international education enhances professional diversity and improves the social work students’ global perspective, sometimes that education is inappropriate for theoretical and practical social work applications because of differences in legal and policy frameworks between countries (Kayadibi et al., 2024). As Caputo et al. (2015) have warned, ‘Western’-centric education models acquired abroad may not suit the needs of Indigenous or minority populations in non-‘Western’ settings. Consequently, social workers trained in one context but practising in another must produce suitable adaptations to effectively contextualize their new knowledge.

Foreign-trained social workers may also face barriers to the recognition of their qualifications, including rigid accreditation processes. They may be underemployed or need to undergo additional training for foreign-trained professionals to meet local licensing requirements (Allassad Alhuzail and Mahajne, 2023; Marangell and D’Orazzi, 2023).

Social workers who have trained in non-native languages may have difficulty coping with the local language when practising in another country. Kayadibi et al. (2024) note that social workers may struggle to explain and use the terminology they have learnt abroad and may find it difficult to communicate with service users in their new working environments. Being able to speak fluently is crucial for effective social work practice, which relies heavily on communication and interpersonal skills (Allassad Alhuzail and Mahajne, 2025; Nohl et al., 2014).

An additional challenge for foreign-trained professionals is the need to adapt to different social work practices and ethical standards. During the COVID-19 pandemic, differences in government and institutional support and adaptability had a decisive impact on international students’ integration experiences (Sin et al., 2025). During and after that period, the global shift to online learning further complicated the integration of international social work students, as learning at a distance often lacks the interpersonal experiential learning necessary for social work training.

Lifelong learning, essential for professional adaptation, particularly in social work, is strongly influenced by sociopolitical changes and movement between countries (Allassad Alhuzail and Mahajne, 2024). Adaptation to the transition between different spaces can be facilitated by training programmes that provide professional mentorship (Kayadibi et al., 2024).

Taken together, these three bodies of scholarship described above provide the conceptual foundation for the present study. While research on Arab social work in Israel highlights structural inequality and professional marginalization, studies on Palestinian higher education trajectories illuminate the educational pathways that shape these graduates’ entry into the profession. The literature on foreign-trained social workers further offers a comparative framework clarifying challenges related to credential recognition, professional language, and integration into host institutions. Integrating these strands enables a more nuanced examination of how Bedouin social workers, educated in PA colleges, experience and express their professional incorporation as they navigate their entry into Israeli welfare services, a matter not yet fully explored by research. The study described here addresses this gap in knowledge by focusing on the following research question: how do Bedouin social work graduates educated in PA colleges experience their professional integration into Israeli welfare services, and how do they interpret and respond to the challenges they encounter?

The research population

The participants, 34 female Bedouin social workers, had graduated 2 years before the current study and were awaiting Israel’s recognition of their degrees. They had already been salaried social workers for 6 months to a year, and all voluntarily participated in the Connecting Bridge programme. A public call for participation in the programme was disseminated among eligible Bedouin social workers, and those interested registered independently. The programme was funded by Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, and participants bore no financial cost. The 1-year programme was not an unpaid practicum but rather a supplementary professional bridging and support framework designed to facilitate their integration into the welfare system and to mediate gaps between the knowledge they had previously acquired and their social work practice in Israel. Four Connecting Bridge mentors guided this group; all four are social workers with doctoral degrees and senior staff members in the school of social work of the institution in which the research was conducted.

Data collection

The study used two primary data-collection tools: in-depth semi-structured interviews with programme participants and reflective texts written by the Connecting Bridge mentors. The latter were reflective professional documents in which mentors documented pedagogical processes, themes raised in group sessions, and their professional interpretations. These two complementary sources enabled methodological triangulation between participants’ lived experiences and mentors’ reflective accounts of the learning environment.

The interviews were aimed at understanding the social workers’ experiences while fulfilling their role and orienting themselves in the welfare bureaux. Each interview began with an open question that invited the interviewee to describe her experiences as a social worker in the welfare services in Bedouin society. Then, the interviewees were asked about their feelings and relations with the rest of the staff and their superiors. The interviews were conducted in Arabic by the first researcher, in face-to-face individual meetings, in a location chosen by the interviewee. The interviews lasted on average between 60 and 90 minutes. Each interview was recorded with the interviewees’ informed consent and later transcribed in full. Data collection continued for a year.

Autobiographical analyses were performed for the reflective records of the four Connecting Bridge mentors to understand how they saw the social workers and which experiences emerged in the different learning environments. Two of the mentors facilitated a group that worked to create an educational, supportive space, where participants could discuss social issues and observe themselves and what was happening to them. Two of the mentors taught the participants theoretical content and professional skills.

The Connecting Bridge programme mentors were not workplace supervisors or decision-makers within the welfare bureaux where the participants were employed. Instead, they served as academic mentors in a programme designed to support professional transition. They had no authority over employment conditions, evaluation processes, or job security. Their reflective autobiographical texts were included as reflective professional documents to illuminate the programme’s pedagogical space, rather than as supervisory assessments of participants’ performance.

Given that the staff members occupied a mentoring role vis-à-vis the participants, the research team engaged in ongoing reflexive examination of the inherent power dynamics in researching one’s own trainees. The mentors’ reflections were analysed separately from the participants’ interviews and were not treated as objective validations of the participants’ experiences. Interpretations were cross-checked collaboratively to avoid paternalistic or deficit-oriented readings. Particular attention was paid to moments in which participants defended their degrees. These narratives were interpreted as reflecting both possible resistance to learning and emotional responses shaped by broader contextual constraints, while remaining attentive to multiple possible interpretations of the data.

Data analysis

The research data underwent thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006; Patton, 2002). Each interview, the records of the focus group discussions, and the responses to the qualitative questionnaire were read continuously by the researchers. In the first reading, each of the researchers separately recorded their first impressions from the interviews and from the reflective autobiographical analyses and the main subjects that appeared in them, aiming to gain deep familiarity with the data (Braun and Clarke, 2006). In the second stage, each of the interviews was analysed thoroughly by the researchers together according to grounded theory (Creswell, 2003). The data then underwent open inductive coding to identify units of meaning that emerged from the interviews and then to identify repetitive patterns of meaning emerging from the different texts. In the third stage, the researchers formed links between the different emergent categories and gathered them into themes, naming each theme in a collective file for all the interviews. This stage included a deep examination of the interviewees’ experiences and challenges.

Ethics

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the institute where one of the researchers is employed. All ethical research rules were followed throughout the study. The purpose of the study and its significance were explained to the participants, and they were assured that the confidentiality of their personal details would be maintained. They were also told that they could end their participation at any point. They then gave their informed consent to participate voluntarily in the study. Their privacy and anonymity were ensured by omitting all identifying details in the records of the findings.

Although participants described incidents of professional marginalization occurring in their workplaces, the mentors’ role within the Connecting Bridge programme did not extend to direct institutional intervention. The programme functioned as a supportive and reflective learning environment aimed at strengthening professional language, confidence, and coping strategies. Ethical boundaries were maintained between mentoring, research, and workplace governance structures.

Reliability of the research

To enhance the reliability of this study, purposeful sampling was used to select Bedouin social workers with degrees from PA institutions who were employed in Israeli social services. Methodological triangulation was achieved by combining two complementary data sources: in-depth interviews with the social workers and autobiographical reflections written by the Connecting Bridge mentors. Integrating participants’ first-person accounts with mentors’ professional observations enhanced the credibility of the findings and provided a more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon under study. Cross-checking was conducted between members of the research team through iterative discussions. While participants were not formally involved in member-checking, we engaged in reflexive analysis to critically examine potential power dynamics and interpretive biases.

Silencing the professional voice

The social workers described a consistent pattern whereby their professional voice was silenced and their professionalism and professional abilities were doubted, hindering their attempts to undertake responsibility and lead projects and obstructing their promotion in the welfare services. This was described by A and R:

Every idea that I have is dismissed as unsuitable, not professional. It’s very frustrating, I only perform what the team head says. This means that I won’t be able to advance. (A)

I wanted to promote a special programme for stateless women. The team leader told me that this was very complex and that I did not have the tools and the necessary professional maturity, because I am young and studied outside Israel. (R)

The interviewees also spoke about their lack of self-confidence and professional confidence that might help them defend their professionalism. They chose to remain silent and thus survive in a challenging work environment, as was testified by another interviewee:

They always say that [my plan] is not appropriate for Bedouin society, unsuitable for Israeli policies, that it’s forbidden and unacceptable. I believe in the therapeutic idea that I suggested, but I don’t have the confidence to persuade them . . . The bureau manager and the team head are not on my side. It weakens me, so I give up.

Their professional voice was also silenced in their practicum, as expressed in the Connecting Bridge group space. They described an experience of ‘oversupervision’ by their superiors, a sense that no one relied on them, as can be understood from a citation by one of the mentors:

One of the participants talked about the recent period when she was frustrated by her workplace. she was working from 8 to 4 and . . . felt that she was continually under inspection. They checked where she was, and that she was present more than necessary, and in a manner that made her feel uncomfortable. She also felt unappreciated, a phrase that she repeated several times. She also said the way that she was treated meant that she felt lonely at her workplace.

The silencing of the social workers’ professional voice was also expressed during their participation in professional discussions, such as participation in treatment planning committees and professional staff meetings. They were constantly accompanied and represented by their mentor or team head and were not allowed to present their professional voice in an autonomous way, as the interviewee F said:

My mentor came with me to the treatment planning committee. I know she doesn’t trust me. She presented the case instead of me. And every time the head of the committee asked questions, she answered. I felt like I was invisible on that committee and didn’t have a professional voice. (F)

This denial of their professional voice was also noted in the Connecting Bridge group meetings, as described by N, one of the mentors:

It was an especially moving meeting. They shared feelings of frustration and insult because they were silenced in the committees and staff meetings. Three social workers said that their team leader asked them to be present in the meeting with the superintendent but not to speak. And if they wanted to say something they had to say it in Arabic, because it would not be nice if they spoke Hebrew in an unprofessional way. I was sad to hear how social workers like them silence them instead of empowering them. (N)

Factors causing silencing of the social workers’ professional voice

Analysis of the research data indicated that personal, environmental, and collegial factors influence the Bedouin social workers’ professional voice and invalidate or silence them. These factors include doubting and denigrating the knowledge they acquired in the PA colleges, their lack of fluent Hebrew, the interference of political elements involved in local political dynamics, and family affiliation.

Doubting and denigrating the knowledge acquired in PA colleges

None of the interviewees had been accepted by higher education institutions in Israel, so they studied for their first degree (BA) in a PA college, attending classes on Friday and Saturday, days on which the Palestinian students did not have classes. After graduation, they waited more than 2 years to gain recognition of their degrees in Israel and be listed in the Social Workers’ Register. They noted that this waiting period meant that their degrees and their professionalism were mistrusted, as L explained:

I studied three years in the college. We were a large group of girls. We mostly studied on Fridays and Saturdays . . . We waited a lot for our degree to be recognised [in Israel]. They continually doubted and tested us and the institution where we had studied. The suspicion made it difficult for us to find work. (L)

Another interviewee, M, described the long waiting period, the continual demands for proof that they had indeed studied, and the requirement to deliver documents to the Ministry of Welfare to test whether their degree was valid:

It was a long process. We waited three years and more. We hired a lawyer, requested help from Arab Knesset members. But in the end the Ministry of Welfare demanded that we undergo additional courses, more material to learn. Eventually, we were listed in the Social Workers’ Register, but the process harmed us. The doubt regarding our degrees continues until today. (M)

The interviewees invested significant effort in defending their degrees and their quality. The efforts drained them emotionally, making them less amenable to learning something new and different, suited to social work in Israel, as B, one of the mentors, explained:

I asked them about the staff that taught them, and which model they had for imitation. I felt that they were investing energy in defending their degree studies rather than investing that energy in their professional development. A participant said: ‘A great person taught us. When he came into the room you could feel his influence. Wow’ [she opened her arms]. Others said that they were professional. ‘We write a lot in the lessons’. Very slowly I understood that the staff that taught them were mainly two men, sociologists and not social workers. I felt that they wanted to prove to me that they had studied with the best and wanted to defend the institution and their degrees. (B)

Lack of professional language

The interviewees said their lack of professional language was a major factor in the silencing of their professional voice. They described a different professional language that they had learned in the PA colleges, a language that is not recognized in Israel and leaves them without a professional language when facing the service users and their colleagues, as L noted:

What I studied in Palestine is different from what is acceptable here. For example, I don’t know what the students who are doing the training and also my service users are saying. I don’t know what is an ‘agent of change’, or a ‘client system’ or ‘failure of empathy’. I prefer to remain silent because I don’t have professional language.

The importance of professional language was evident in all the interviewees’ learning spaces. One of the mentors wrote about the importance that the social workers ascribed to professional language:

All the participants expressed their consent to learn professional language that could help them in a wide range of situations. Thus, for example, they noted that they needed professional language to write their reports correctly. They also needed it to act in a respectable and professional manner in planning and treatment committees, and in meetings with colleagues outside Arab society.

These findings indicate not only processes of marginalization but also objective gaps in exposure to core social work concepts and terminology. Such gaps reflect differences in training structures and curricula and highlight the need for structured professional bridging rather than solely institutional recognition.

Lack of fluent Hebrew

The interviewees began their studies in the PA colleges immediately after graduating from high school. They had not acquired a strong command of Hebrew and had not had any interaction with Jewish-Israeli society. During their 3-year degree course, they studied only in Arabic and did not use Hebrew. Returning to work as social workers in Israel without fluent Hebrew constituted another factor for the silencing of their professional voice, as B described it:

I don’t know Hebrew. I am ashamed to say my Hebrew is like a student in Grade 4. It is difficult for me to speak with the superintendent, difficult to write a social report in Hebrew, difficult to help my service user by phoning the National Insurance Bureau to discover what has happened with her allowance. (B)

Lack of Hebrew proficiency increased the interviewees’ dependence on their colleagues and mentors or the team leader who guided them. This dependence created a burden for the bureau staff, and often the interviewees felt staff members were not available to them, and that they could not be professionally independent. This was revealed by a mentor in a group discussion:

The social workers spoke a poor Hebrew. They found it difficult to express themselves. Those who speak Hebrew speak unprofessional Hebrew, a more amateur language. There are three social workers who don’t speak Hebrew at all. Their friends translate for them all the time and mediate for them. They are very dependent on their friends in the group and, it seems, also on their mentors.

Taken together, these accounts indicate that language functions not merely as a communicative tool but also as a gatekeeping mechanism that regulates access to professional legitimacy.

Interference of political entities

Denigration of the interviewees’ knowledge and professionalism, alongside their lack of professional language and non-fluent Hebrew, meant that the interviewees were weak links in the social services bureaux. They were also exposed to criticism and interference by political entities in the local government where they were employed. This interference by elected politicians harmed their professional voice and silenced it, as D remarked:

A council member, responsible for welfare, said, in front of the service users, that I don’t understand anything. Sometimes he speaks to me in Hebrew because he knows that I don’t know it well. It belittles me in front of the disadvantaged service users who come to me to help them. I am presented as weak and unprofessional in front of them. (D)

The interference of political figures who invalidate the social workers’ professional voice arose constantly in the Connecting Bridge group space, as one of the mentors noted:

One of the participants described how it didn’t matter how often he refused to help service users who were not entitled to help. They would threaten to talk to the mayor about him, and one telephone call by them would be sufficient for them to receive what they wanted. This meant that the social worker’s presence and professionalism would be invalidated. They are subordinate to the mayor, and are obligated to act in accordance with his instructions and demands.

This political suppression by local government harms the social workers’ professional voice and discredits them in front of their service users, as was evident in the voices that arose in their group discussion:

Until today the politicians offer concrete and material assistance, and when it is impossible to authorise the service user’s request, the service users complain to the welfare bureau management or to the mayor, and then they receive what they want.

Failing to please the local political figures can endanger the social worker’s job, as was also voiced in the group discussion:

I asked them, ‘What happens in a situation where you refuse a request by a council member and set a professional boundary?’ They replied that they can be told to go home and they will be dismissed. (N, a mentor)

These examples reveal a systematic subordination of professional judgement to local political authority.

Family affiliations

Family affiliations were another factor that emerged as involved in the silencing of the social workers’ professional voice. Participants noted that their kinship ties were sometimes viewed as a liability rather than a resource, casting doubt on their impartiality and professionalism. Some reported that colleagues or supervisors assumed their decisions were influenced by family or tribal loyalties, rather than by professional judgement, as interviewee R explained:

Whenever I make a recommendation, they suspect I am protecting my relatives or acting out of family interests. Even when I am objective, my words are taken as biased. This makes me feel that my professionalism is invisible, and that I am judged only through my family name. (R)

This perception reinforced their sense of marginalization and limited their ability to assert their professional identity.

Lack of alternative employment

Because their skills are doubted, as are their professionalism and the quality of their college degrees, the interviewees found it difficult to find employment. They therefore worked in local government welfare bureaux, which suffer from a lack of social workers and which the younger generation of social workers in Israel prefers to avoid. In the bureaux, they had to cope with very large workloads and low status in comparison to graduates of Israeli academic institutions. They also had to pay the price of the disregard for their professional voice, because they had no other employment opportunities, as Y pointed out:

If I were accepted in another workplace I would leave yesterday. To my regret, they see that my diploma is from Palestine and they don’t even invite me for an interview, don’t consider my candidacy. ‘Nothing can force you to swallow a bitter pill, only a pill that is even more bitter’ [an Arab proverb]. (Y)

The lack of other employment opportunities forced the social workers to remain in an undesirable workplace. They tried to cope and to see the advantages of their workplace, which in principle facilitated their family’s well-being, as was voiced by the interviewees in their group discussion and reported by Y, a mentor:

I asked, if that is so, what inspires your motivation to remain in that workplace despite the difficulties? And they responded: flexibility; a workplace that is convenient and close to home; the simple proximity between the workplace and my place of residence makes things easier for me; there is a steady income and it is a good bureau despite the crises; a familiar work environment and I lack the strength to find a new workplace; my children’s school is close to my workplace. (Y)

Coping strategies: Bureaucratic and conciliatory practices

In response to these challenges, participants described adopting bureaucratic and conciliatory strategies to survive within the welfare system. Rather than insisting on their independent voice, they often relied on procedural routines, deferring to written regulations or strictly following instructions from superiors. This bureaucratic approach enabled them to avoid mistakes and accusations of unprofessionalism. In addition, many participants engaged in conciliatory practices, seeking to appease colleagues, supervisors, or local political actors rather than confronting them, as one social worker, L, explained: ‘I know that if I argue, they will say I am unprofessional. So, I keep to the procedures, write reports exactly as they want, and keep everyone calm. It is not ideal, but it keeps me in the job’.

These coping mechanisms highlight how professional silence is maintained not only by external pressures but also by the workers’ own strategies of adaptation and survival.

To summarize, the findings reveal a pattern whereby the professional voice of Bedouin social workers educated in PA colleges is at times constrained, limited, or rendered less influential within institutional settings in Israeli welfare bureaux, rather than being fully silenced in a uniform or absolute manner. This perceived disregard for their professional voice is reflected in instances where their professionalism is questioned, and their acquired knowledge is not fully recognized.

This perception is augmented by their lack of command of Hebrew and the interference of local political figures. These experiences cause frustration and loss of professional identity, and they harm the social workers’ ability to fulfil their role independently. It was also found that the interviewees had to adapt to abusive working conditions and employ survival mechanisms instead of developing an independent professional voice. This is despite the fact that they are able to communicate well in Arabic with their service users and to understand their culture. Across the themes, a pattern becomes visible: credential delegitimization, linguistic marginalization, political interference, and suspicion of kinship influence operate as interconnected mechanisms that cumulatively constrain their professional voice. It is clear from the findings that support and recognition mechanisms are needed to enable their optimal egalitarian integration in the Israeli welfare system.

Summary and recommendations

Beyond its empirical focus, this study contributes to social work scholarship by conceptualizing professional voice silencing as a structured process, emerging at the intersection of credential recognition, linguistic capital, and politicized welfare governance in minority contexts. It extends research on internationally educated social workers by demonstrating how minority positioning reshapes professional recognition processes within state welfare systems. These insights carry direct implications for workforce integration policies and institutional accountability mechanisms.

Adaptations are needed in the welfare system, including the development of support and reinforcement processes and recognition of foreign degrees. The studied social workers should be able to access learning of appropriate professional language. Mechanisms should be constructed to limit the influence of local political figures on the social workers’ professional work and enable them to act with full professional autonomy. Investment in educational programmes, a system for professional development, and teaching of tools to cope with the linguistic and cultural challenges could help these Bedouin social workers consolidate a strong professional identity and become a significant factor in the welfare field in Israel.