Background
Immigrant family transition to a new country
A framework for understanding immigrant parenting
Methods
Participants and recruitment strategy
Mothers = 15 (65 %) | Fathers = 8 (35 %) | |
---|---|---|
Age | 22–48 years (Ma = 34.6 years) | 26–53 years (M = 49 years) |
Time in Sweden | 3–18 years (M = 5.7 years) | 4–10 years (M = 5.6 years) |
Time together with the children | 1–18 years (M = 5 years) | 2–7 years (M = 4 years) |
Number of children | 1–6 children (M = 3.7) | 1–13 children (M = 7.4) |
Marital status | 11 married, | 8 married |
3 divorced | ||
1 widowed | ||
Employment status | 3 working | 3 working |
4 studying | 1 studying | |
3 unemployed | 2 unemployed | |
5 on parental leave | 1 job training | |
1 on parental leave |
Data collection
Data analysis
Ethical considerations
Results
Challenges
Leaving the home country
The father and mother, when they were in their country they were mentally healthy, as they believed, but when they came here they realized that they were insane, and every person that gets out of that life realizes that he/she is insane … later when I came here, for the first 6 months I wasn’t normal. My brother used to bring me sleeping drugs, I would take that and sleep, then later on I became fine.
In Somalia the child might be playing outside .... my neighbour might talk to him if he is doing something wrong. Even the teacher or anyone who sees [him] can talk to the kid if he is doing wrong. By contrast, here in Sweden it’s only you who will care for the kid, so I think that contributes to why it’s hard to be a parent in Sweden.
Being new and feeling alienated
I came into the pharmacy. There was a Swedish father and his daughter together, she wanted to press the queue number, but the father had already pressed it and so the daughter became angry and shouted. He kneeled down and apologized for almost 5 minutes…. We don’t do that.
Gender roles and power conflict
When older kids and parents come together in Sweden, and a kid wants some money, like 5 000 Swedish kroner, he says it’s his money. And the parent can’t refuse because he will say, “If you don’t give me the money, I will tell the social services that you beat me.”
The conflicts between husband and wife started during the civil war when women started to work; before that, when the husband comes home and he is not in a good mood, the wife gives him the service he requires, like feeding him, and bathing him till he cools down … . So who now cools down the other? The woman works, the man works, they both take masculine responsibility. They come home and they’re all exhausted – the husband, the wife and the children.
New social challenges
The other two ladies [teachers] are talking about the girl, “What is wrong with her?”, “What happened to the girl?”, “Has something happened at home …?” Then I told them, “Perhaps she’s caught a cold, and it’s not yet showing … .” Then the next day the girl got sick.
Improved parenting
Communication
Respect and boundaries
When I came here I had my four kids, and their father wasn’t around. I had completed high school by then and was expecting to go to university to study economics. I didn’t even get the time to read the language books when I arrived here. I had to work hard to be a father and a mother and a friend to my children.