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A factory closes because production moved overseas. A family sends part of every paycheck to relatives in another country. A hurricane displaces a neighborhood that was already struggling. A teenager feels caught between their parents’ culture and the culture they see at school and online. Each of these situations is shaped by globalization, and each could walk into a Social Worker’s office.
Globalization is the growing connection of economies, cultures, people, and technology across national borders. For Social Workers, it means that forces far away can shape clients’ jobs, families, identities, health, and access to services. This guide explains how globalization affects clients and client systems, the frameworks that help you make sense of it, how these ideas show up on the new ASWB exam, and practice questions with rationales.
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Quick answer: how does globalization affect clients and client systems?
- Economic: Job loss from outsourcing and automation, low-wage work in global supply chains, and widening inequality.
- Migration: Immigration, displacement, family separation, transnational families, and acculturative stress.
- Culture and identity: Exposure to new ideas, plus pressure on traditional cultures, languages, and family roles.
- Environment: Climate-related disasters and pollution that hit marginalized communities hardest.
- Technology: More access to information and telehealth, but a digital divide for those without devices, internet, or digital skills.
- On the exam: These ideas appear through person-in-environment, cultural humility, acculturation, social justice, and ethics questions.
Jump to: What globalization means · Impacts on clients · Frameworks to know · Implications for practice · On the ASWB exam · Practice questions · FAQs
1) What Globalization Means for Social Work
Globalization isn’t new, but its pace has increased with trade, travel, migration, and the internet. Its effects are uneven. Some people gain new jobs, products, and opportunities, while others lose work, face rising costs, or are forced to move.
Social Work has always looked at people in the context of their environment. Globalization widens that environment. A client’s situation may be shaped by trade policy, international conflict, climate change, or a relative’s circumstances in another country. The profession recognizes this directly: the NASW Code of Ethics calls on Social Workers to promote the general welfare of society “from local to global levels” (Standard 6.01), and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) adopted a shared Global Definition of Social Work in 2014.
Migration is one of the clearest examples. The United Nations estimates there were about 304 million international migrants worldwide in 2024, and UNHCR reported that 123.2 million people were forcibly displaced by the end of 2024.
2) How Globalization Affects Clients and Client Systems
Globalization affects clients at every level: individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. The table below summarizes the main areas.
| Area | Possible benefits | Possible harms | What it can look like in practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economic | New industries, jobs, and lower-cost goods | Job loss from outsourcing and automation, wage pressure, unstable work, widening inequality | A laid-off manufacturing worker with depression and debt, or a family working multiple gig jobs without benefits |
| Migration | Safety, opportunity, family reunification, remittances that support relatives abroad | Trauma, family separation, legal uncertainty, exploitation, discrimination | An asylum seeker with PTSD, a child separated from a parent, or a family sending money home while struggling with rent |
| Culture and identity | Exposure to diverse ideas, foods, music, and ways of living | Loss of heritage language and traditions, intergenerational conflict, acculturative stress | A teen who no longer speaks the parents’ first language, or parents worried about losing cultural values |
| Environment | Shared global efforts on climate and health | Climate-related disasters, displacement, pollution, and resource scarcity, which hit low-income communities hardest | A community recovering from flooding, or a neighborhood near an industrial site with high asthma rates |
| Technology | Telehealth, online education, remote work, connection with family abroad | Digital divide, misinformation, cyberbullying, online exploitation, privacy risks | An older adult who cannot access an online benefits portal, or a teen experiencing cyberbullying |
Transnational Families
Many clients have family members in more than one country. They may send remittances, care for relatives across borders, or live apart from spouses or children for years. These ties can be a major source of strength and meaning, and also a source of financial strain, worry, and grief. Ask about family obligations abroad rather than assuming the household in front of you is the whole family system.
Environmental Justice
Climate change and pollution do not affect everyone equally. Low-income communities and communities of color are more likely to live near pollution sources and to have fewer resources to recover from disasters. The Council on Social Work Education’s 2022 accreditation standards now name environmental justice alongside human rights and social, racial, and economic justice, and “Create Social Responses to a Changing Environment” is one of the Grand Challenges for Social Work.
Agents of Change packages include video and audio lessons, hundreds of practice questions, and 2 live study groups each month so you’ll be ready for test day!
3) Frameworks to Know
Person-in-Environment and Ecological Systems Theory
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory describes nested levels of influence, from the microsystem (family, school, work) to the macrosystem (culture, economy, laws, and values). Global forces usually enter through the macrosystem and exosystem, such as a trade policy that closes a parent’s workplace, then ripple into the family and the individual. On the exam, this is a reminder to look beyond the individual when assessing a problem.
Berry’s Acculturation Strategies
Psychologist John Berry described four ways people may respond when cultures meet, based on whether they keep their heritage culture and whether they take part in the new, larger society:
| Strategy | Keeps heritage culture? | Takes part in larger society? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Integration | Yes | Yes | Generally linked with the best adjustment and well-being |
| Assimilation | No | Yes | Gives up heritage culture to adopt the new one |
| Separation | Yes | No | Maintains heritage culture while avoiding the larger society |
| Marginalization | No | No | Loses connection to both; linked with the most stress |
Acculturation often happens at different speeds within one family. Children may adapt quickly while parents hold closer to their heritage culture, which can lead to role reversals, such as children interpreting for parents, and intergenerational conflict.
Cultural Humility
Cultural humility means approaching each client as the expert on their own culture and experience, reflecting on your own biases, and addressing power imbalances in the helping relationship. NASW Standard 1.05 (Cultural Competence) asks Social Workers to demonstrate both knowledge of clients’ cultures and cultural humility.
Social Justice and Human Rights
Social justice is a core value of the profession. NASW Standard 6.04 (Social and Political Action) calls on Social Workers to advocate for policies that expand access and opportunity and to act against discrimination, including on the basis of national origin and immigration status. Internationally, the IFSW’s Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development frames the profession’s shared priorities.
4) Implications for Social Work Practice
| Level | What Social Workers can do |
|---|---|
| Micro (individuals and families) | Assess the full context, including migration history, work, family abroad, and cultural values. Use professional interpreters. Address acculturative stress and trauma. Build on strengths such as faith, bilingualism, and family ties. |
| Mezzo (groups and organizations) | Offer culturally responsive groups, partner with community and faith organizations, make agency materials available in clients’ languages, and train staff in cultural humility. |
| Macro (communities and policy) | Advocate for fair labor protections, language access, digital inclusion, disaster preparedness, and environmental justice. Build coalitions that include affected community members. |
Across all levels, avoid stereotyping. Two clients from the same country can have very different experiences, values, and goals.
5) How Globalization Shows Up on the New ASWB Exam
The new ASWB exam, which launched August 3, 2026, has 122 questions (110 scored) in two sections of 61, with 4 hours of total testing time. It covers three content areas: Values and Ethics (35% of the Bachelors and Masters exams, 36% of Clinical), Assessment and Planning (33% of Bachelors and Masters, 32% of Clinical), and Intervention and Practice (32%).
You won’t see a content area called “globalization.” Instead, the ideas behind it appear in questions about:
- Diversity, culture, and cultural humility in assessment and intervention
- Acculturation, immigration, and intergenerational family conflict
- Person-in-environment and the effects of economic and social conditions on clients
- Use of interpreters and culturally appropriate communication
- Social justice, advocacy, and community practice
- Ethical standards such as 1.05 (Cultural Competence), 6.01 (Social Welfare), and 6.04 (Social and Political Action)
Test-Day Tips
- Look for integration, not assimilation. Answers that pressure clients to give up their culture are rarely correct.
- Ask before assuming. Choose answers that explore the client’s own cultural meaning and goals.
- Use professional interpreters. Answers that rely on children or family members to interpret are usually wrong.
- Consider the whole environment. When a problem is tied to job loss, displacement, or discrimination, the best answer often addresses those conditions, not just symptoms.
- Safety and basic needs come first after disasters or displacement.
Our decision tree for FIRST, NEXT, BEST, and MOST and guide to the 3-option question strategy can help with these questions.
6) ASWB Practice Questions: Globalization and Client Systems
Question 1: A Social Worker is developing a program in an urban neighborhood that has recently welcomed many immigrant families from several countries. The goal is to help families adjust while building connection with longtime residents. Which approach would be MOST effective?
A) Workshops that encourage immigrant families to adopt local customs and English as quickly as possible
B) Community events and forums that bring immigrant families and longtime residents together, along with language classes and cultural humility training for residents
C) Job placement services for immigrant adults only
Answer: B
Rationale: This option supports integration, helping newcomers take part in the wider community while keeping their heritage cultures, and it engages both groups. Option A pushes assimilation, which can alienate families and is linked with more stress. Option C meets an important economic need but ignores social connection and community cohesion.
Question 2: A 15-year-old who immigrated with her parents three years ago speaks English fluently and often interprets for them. Her parents say she has become disrespectful and is “losing our ways.” She says her parents don’t understand her life. What is the Social Worker’s BEST understanding of this conflict?
A) It is a sign of oppositional defiant disorder that requires a diagnostic evaluation
B) It reflects different rates of acculturation within the family, which commonly creates intergenerational conflict and role strain
C) It shows that the parents should adopt the norms of their new country to reduce conflict
Answer: B
Rationale: Children often acculturate faster than parents, and serving as the family interpreter can shift roles and power in the family. Recognizing this helps the Social Worker work with the whole family. Option A pathologizes a common cultural and developmental dynamic. Option C pushes assimilation and dismisses the parents’ values.
Question 3: A client who works two jobs tells the Social Worker that he sends a large part of his income to his mother and siblings in another country and is now behind on rent. What should the Social Worker do FIRST?
A) Explore what supporting his family abroad means to him and his family’s expectations, then work with him on a plan that addresses his rent
B) Advise him to stop sending money until his own finances are stable
C) Refer him to a financial counselor without discussing the issue further
Answer: A
Rationale: Starting with the client’s values and cultural obligations respects self-determination and builds a realistic plan. Telling him to stop (B) imposes the Social Worker’s values. Referring out right away (C) skips engagement and assessment.
Want more practice? Try our free ASWB practice tests or full-length, timed practice exams built for the new exam format.
7) FAQs: Impact of Globalization on Clients and Client Systems
What is globalization in Social Work?
Globalization is the growing connection of economies, cultures, people, and technology across borders. In Social Work, it refers to how those global forces shape clients’ jobs, families, identities, health, and access to resources, and how the profession responds at the local and international levels.
How does globalization affect Social Work practice?
It increases the diversity of clients, brings migration-related needs such as trauma and acculturative stress, links clients’ problems to economic and environmental changes, and expands both the tools (like telehealth) and the inequalities (like the digital divide) Social Workers deal with.
Is globalization tested on the ASWB exam?
Not as its own content area. Its ideas show up in questions about culture, acculturation, immigration, person-in-environment, social justice, and ethics across all three content areas of the new exam.
What are Berry’s acculturation strategies?
John Berry described four strategies: integration (keeping heritage culture while taking part in the larger society), assimilation (giving up heritage culture), separation (keeping heritage culture while avoiding the larger society), and marginalization (losing connection to both). Integration is generally linked with the best outcomes.
What NASW standards relate to globalization?
Key standards include 1.05 (Cultural Competence), 6.01 (Social Welfare), which refers to promoting welfare from local to global levels, and 6.04 (Social and Political Action), which addresses discrimination and access to resources.
8) Related Reading
- Ethics and the ASWB Exam: 1.05 Cultural Awareness and Diversity
- Ethics and the ASWB Exam: 6.01 Social Welfare
- Ethics and the ASWB Exam: 6.04 Social and Political Action
- Community Organizing and the ASWB Exam
- The 3 New ASWB Content Domains: What’s Actually Tested
9) Conclusion
Globalization brings the wider world into every Social Worker’s caseload. It shapes the jobs clients hold or lose, the families they support across borders, the cultures they carry and navigate, the environments they live in, and the technology they can or can’t access. Social Workers who look at the whole environment, practice cultural humility, support integration rather than assimilation, and advocate for justice at every level are well prepared for practice and for the ASWB exam.
Ready to practice? Agents of Change offers Bachelors, Masters, and Clinical prep built for the new ASWB exam, with video and audio lessons, hundreds of practice questions with rationales, 4 full-length practice exams, and 2 live study groups each month.
► Learn more about the Agents of Change course here: https://agentsofchangeprep.com
About the Instructor, Dr. Meagan Mitchell: Meagan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has been providing individualized and group test prep for the ASWB for over 11 years. From all of this experience helping others pass their exams, she created the Agents of Change course to help you prepare for and pass the ASWB exam!
Find more from Agents of Change here:
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Disclaimer: This content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical or clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
