As has been noted throughout this edition social work is a profession that frequently appears on national skills shortage lists in many Western countries. While this has increased global mobility, and enabled transnational social workers to gain employment, professional registration and often permanent residency in foreign jurisdictions, this phenomenon has created additional opportunities and challenges. The relative ease of relocation creates significant opportunities for transnational labour market mobility. However, in an era when social work has faced increasing professional regulation in many jurisdictions, social worker mobility also presents challenges. These challenges include relocating models of practice, adapting and developing professional competencies (especially cultural competencies), clarifying professional identity in a new environment and the translation of knowledge of law and policy from familiar fields to unfamiliar foreign jurisdictions. These challenges confront government policy-makers, social service employers, service users and user communities and the whole of the social work profession, as well as transnational social workers themselves. Part Three, ‘Employer/stakeholder views’, provided examples of how social work employers and/or other key stakeholders encountered social work as a transnational professional space. The main focus of the four chapters in this section is to provide country-specific examples of the challenges and opportunities that are presented by the employment of transnational social workers in particular contexts.

Whether social work is self-regulating or regulated by statute, the primary obligation of such systems is the protection of the public and the maintenance of standards, equivalent to local systems. These systems become significant drivers for standardisation of professional competence and knowledge. This is by no means a straightforward matter, as is demonstrated by the chapters in this section. Four chapters offer insights related to the implications for regulators, policymakers and professional bodies in Canada, Australia and the Republic of Ireland of social work as a transnational professional space.

In ‘Readiness and regulation: perspectives of Canadian stakeholders’ Marion Brown, Annie Pullen Sansfaçon and Kate Matheson draw on insights gained in ‘knowledge exchange fora’ in two Canadian cities that involved both domestic and transnational social workers, employers and representatives from the provincial regulatory bodies. They note the significance of policies and practices in the assessment and licensing of transnational social workers.