Hello and welcome to this press review which takes us from classrooms to city sidewalks, where the daily life of social work is played out very concretely: students in desperate search of internships, social workers in Montpellier on strike to still be able to support with dignity, record of expulsions rental properties which shake up thousands of lives and question our housing policies… While Adrien Guionie has the honors of the newspaper Le Monde which talks about his work on artificial intelligence and social work. Well done Adrien! Solidarity remains a reality and is not a slogan: internships, working conditions, child protection, digital technology, housing, the fight against precariousness… everything intersects there, with the added bonus of some reasons to maintain hope in the capacity of professionals and citizens to move the lines. Without forgetting the many links that may interest you… Happy reading!
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 If I don’t find one, I will abandon my training… : the difficulties of students in a social environment in finding internships
This article from L’Étudiant magazine recounts the growing distress of social work students who are struggling to find an internship, to the point that some are considering abandoning their training. Without being able to access this learning time in a real situation, which often determines the validation of the year, these young people see their professional project weakened and their self-confidence eroded. The issue is not only administrative or academic: it concerns their future, their dignity, and their sense of social usefulness.
Journalist Malika Butzbacha collected the testimony of several students. They recount the dozens of applications sent without response, repeated refusals and the feeling of being left to their own devices in a search that they experience as a journey strewn with obstacles. Some explain having considered internships far from their specialty, in structures which recruit more, simply so as not to lose a year. Others confide their moral fatigue, between financial pressures, the need to work on the side and the obligation to find a reception structure within very tight deadlines.
This article also shows us the limits of institutional support : if the texts remind us that establishments are intended to support the search for internships and to promote equal access, in practice, many students have the feeling of being alone in the face of the lack of offers and competition between candidates. The structures of the social sector sometimes say they are overwhelmed, not always able to supervise a trainee in good conditions, which reinforces a form of inequality. In this context, Malika Butzbacha underlines the risk of an implicit selection between those who have a network and others, with more precarious backgrounds.
Finally, this article reminds us that these difficulties are not specific to social work. They are part of a broader phenomenon of scarcity and precariousness of internships, already documented in other sectors and for several years. For social work students, the situation is all the more paradoxical as the needs in the field are significant, while access to places of practice remains blocked. (read the article in L’Etudiant)
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Montpellier. Social workers, exasperated and on strike, call on the state
In Montpellier, social workers from social security funds (CAF, MSA, Carsat, etc.) went on strike to directly challenge the state on the deterioration of their working conditions and the lack of resources granted to the people they support. United at the call of trade union organizations and collectives, they denounce a situation which is no longer tenable, both for professionals and for people in great precariousness, in a situation of disability or in social distress. This Actu.fr article by Gil Martin reports on this local mobilization, anchored in a broader movement in the social and medico-social sector, which feels ignored despite the increase in needs on the ground.
The demonstrators describe exhausted teams, faced with increasing workloads, unreplaced positions and increasingly complex systems to manage. They warn of the direct consequences for users: longer waiting times, shortened support, interruptions in follow-up for people who are already weakened. Several social workers report a profound feeling of loss of meaning, caught between their professional values and constraints which prevent them from carrying out their profession as they would like.
The question of salaries and recognition looms large. Professionals denounce remuneration which they consider indecent in relation to their responsibilities. They recall that some were excluded from the increases decided within the framework of Ségur de la santé, which they experience as an additional injustice. They also point out the absence of prospects for advancement and the difficulty in recruiting, in a context where vocations are eroding even as social situations become more complex. (read the Métropolitain article on actu.fr)
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New record for rental evictions: This is the worst solution
In 2025, our country reached a new record with 30,500 rental evictions! However, the Housing Foundation points out that this official statistic does not tell the whole story. Two to three times more people leave their homes on their own, under the threat of forceful eviction, bringing the number of people who have suffered this trauma in a single year to almost 200,000, an increase of 25%. Behind these figures, the article emphasizes the violence of eviction: an event which disrupts mental and physical health, weakens professional life, disrupts children’s schooling and leaves, one to three years later, a third of households without a lasting housing solution.
Angèle Roblot and Chloé Mola describe the way in which these evictions directly fuel the housing crisis. In the absence of a lasting solution, many families are added to the hundreds of thousands of people already waiting for social housing or emergency accommodation. Many find themselves staying with relatives like the approximately 600,000 people already in this situation. And then there are those who are forced to live in their car, or even on the street. Through its “Support for Housing Rights” network, the Foundation has been alerting public authorities since 2020 to the growing precariousness of low-income tenants, in a context of a housing crisis which continues to worsen.
The text points to a political turning point which will not have escaped your notice : the logic of preventing expulsions which had prevailed during the health crisis was abandoned in favor of a logic of sanction. The so-called Kasbarian law, adopted in July 2023, has the effect of facilitating and accelerating rental evictions, including for vulnerable households. The Foundation draws on findings from its “Allé Prévention Expulsion” platform and its Espace Solidarité Habitat to document these “devastating” effects on the ground. She also underlines that a plan to prevent evictions had been initiated by former minister Valérie Létard, but that the current Minister of Housing, Vincent Jeanbrun, seems to have abandoned it, while announcing an additional tightening of the legislation.
In conclusion, Christophe Robert, general delegate of the Housing Foundation, calls for a return to a real logic of preventing evictions. He pleads for rent control, an increase in APL, sufficient production of social housing and compliance with the law, particularly for the 100,000 households recognized as priorities under the DALO and still awaiting rehousing. (read the article from the Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged)
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Bonus :
AI, a tool for social work: do not confuse statistical accuracy and social relevance
That’s a pleasure! An article signed in Le Monde reports on the thinking led by Adrien Guionie, social service assistant in child protection, around the use of artificial intelligence in the field of social work. In his work AI, a tool for social work? (Érès, 2026), which I had the pleasure of prefacing, Adrien questions this meeting between two universes that everything seems to oppose: that of data and calculation on one side, that of human relationships and subjectivity, at the heart of social work, on the other.
It is observed that the first experiments are already underway in several departments. Social workers use generative AI to structure reports, map local resources or identify devices adapted to users. These tools save time and can improve the clarity of writing. Adrien Guionie also recognizes a reflective dimension to the machine: the texts produced invite professionals to question their own practices, their biases and their automatisms.
But be careful! This use is not without risk. The author warns us against possible violations of professional secrecy, data protection and copyright. It also warns of the threat of standardization of social work, where automated summaries risk erasing the human dimension. Are the silences, hesitations or emotions that give meaning to the accompaniment destined to disappear? AI, he says, should neither replace field analysis nor speak for the professional.
To conclude, Adrien calls for building a true critical culture around digital tools, so that “humans keep control of meaning”. For him, as for you, the statistical accuracy of the machine cannot be confused with the social relevance of a human perspective. (read the article in Le Monde)
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In the professional press…
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Did you get to the end of this press review? Well done and thank you! Thanks also to Michelle Flandre who helped me make it.
Featured photo: Perplexity. The character representing a student is fictitious
