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By the time these words appear in print, I understand that we shall have taken one more step, whatever that is, towards joining the European Community whatever that is. (We have trouble enough defining what we mean by a community even within Britain; I can't imagine it's going to be any easier, in European terms, even to perceive the community, let alone define it.) Anyway, before very long, people are going to start drifting about Western Europe in the quest of their own particular rainbows; and some of them are going to take their social problems with them. I don't think social workers have begun to consider the situation yet. One of the problems that will immediately arise is that of transmitting, across national boundaries, the basic facts of casework material. I can't see, for example, how a social worker in, say, Slough is going to make a meaningful referral to her opposite number in Minervino Murge whither one of her problem families has fled to escape the bailiffs. And, of course, with the current shortage of secure accommodation for difficult adolescent girls, a social worker in Chorlton-cum-Hardy may have to go as far as Bad Mergentheim to obtain a placement. So it seems to me clear that a new International Casework Language will have to be developed pretty quickly. Fortunately the basic materials are already to hand.