‘This is a cage for migrants’ In this direction, in the past two years the Greek branch of the Social Work Action Network has been actively involved in the community with a number of initiatives and movements, as will be mentioned below. Finally, as Ioakimidis et al (2014) claim, social workers in Greece, where austerity measures have resulted in the curtailment if not the complete abolition of benefits in the health and welfare sector (Ioakimidis and Teloni, 2013), find themselves with no means of providing material help.The traditional application of mainstream social work is now more than ever too little if not ineffective where poverty is the reality for the great proportion of Greece’s inhabitants. Delivered by Ingenta IP : 94.67.166.95 On: Thu, 17 Oct 2019 07:25:18 Copyright The Policy Press The ‘culture of silence’ versus the politicisation and radicalisation of social work It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss further the crisis and its consequences; however, contemporary social work is conducted in this context and a brief glimpse into the reality for practitioners is necessary for our discussion. As it has been discussed elsewhere (Ioakimidis and Teloni, 2013), a welfare state was never a priority for the Greek state. Moreover, in recent years the neoliberal attack, using the alibi of the crisis particularly from 2010, has resulted in the rapid promotion of neoliberal policies (the privatisation of the public sector, massive cuts in salaries and pensions, dismissals, and curtailments in health and welfare provision) and the application of austerity measures, which have had tremendous consequences for the welfare and health sector and a damaging impact on society (see Kentikelenis et al, 2011; Asimopoulos, 2012; Papadopoulos and Roumpakis, 2012; Ifanti et al, 2013; Karanikolos et al, 2013; Adam and Papatheodorou, 2014; Kentikelenis et al, 2014; Poulopoulos, 2014). As regards social work practitioners in the public sector, even before the crisis, they experienced difficult working conditions, such as understaffing, overwork, low pay, political interference in the public sector and a lack of in-service training and support (Teloni, 2011a). Moreover, many were employed on short-term contracts and had lower salaries and harder working conditions than their colleagues who were employed in state services ten years before (Ioakimidis and Mpithimitris, 2009), a common divide-and-rule tactic in capitalism. Since 2010 and the massive cuts in the public sector, with a parallel attack on working conditions (Kouzis, 2013), social workers in both the public and private sectors have found themselves facing the risk of poverty, a characteristic they share more than ever with their clients. In non-governmental organisations in particular, practitioners are experiencing insecurity, many are unpaid for months, while the salary in most cases is very low – as little as €550 per month in certain cases (Ioakimidis et al, 2014; Poulopoulos, 2014). These conditions do not encourage social workers to participate in public dialogue against racism and indeed the participation of social workers in anti-racism campaigns and in public dialogue (as well as for other social problems) is limited. However, social workers attempt to do their best in their everyday practice, dealing mainly with casework, with limited resources and attempting to advocate for their clients. Traditionally, social work in Greece was rather ‘silent’ on public issues, having little or no intervention in public debate on social problems. Papadaki (2005) observed a ‘culture of silence’ as a characteristic in state social services. Rather than collectively confronting their hard working conditions as a problem per se, social workers did 199