The dilemmas of providing welfare in an ethnically diverse state : seeking reconciliation in the role of a 'reflexive practitioner'

Despite an increasing commitment to tackle disadvantage and discrimination, welfare states in the West struggle to provide accessible and appropriate health and social care to people of minority ethnic populations. This article analyses the dilemmas of welfare provision in an ethnically diverse state by drawing on empirical findings from a qualitative study exploring the perceptions and experiences of family life and social support for people of Pakistani origin living in the UK, and its interface with the state as a site of potentially competing and conflicting sets of social values. We conclude by suggesting that a notion of 'reflexive practitioner' is fundamental to generating a critical insight that can deal with the tensions posed by diversity for a welfare state.