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Navigating ’’Respectability’’: The relationship to the family central in Sweden for migrants from Muslim countries

Abstract

The proposed project aims to explore how parenthood is negotiated and constructed by parents with foreign backgrounds in Muslims countries through strategies of respectability when they access welfare institutions such as the family central in Sweden from an intersectional perspective. Studies show that families with foreign backgrounds in general, and those in risk of being racialized as Muslims in specific, pertains to groups that in different ways are marginalized in terms of access to the services in welfare institutions, although there are important variation of experiences within and across these groups. Issues that often are raised concern language barriers and socio-economic factors explaining a status as vulnerable. There are also other factors such as discrimination, stereotyping and stigmatizing discourses against families with a foreign background in welfare institutions. Thus, performing 'migrant respectability' can be a strategy to avoid stigmatization and stereotypes when they access welfare institutions such as the family central in Sweden.

Keywords:

Intersectionality, Social exclusion/inclusion, Welfare , respectability

Description

The proposed project aims to explore how parenthood is negotiated and constructed by parents with foreign backgrounds in Muslims countries through strategies of respectability when they access welfare institutions such as the family central in Sweden. Research on family centrals is often based on assumptions that emphasize the importance of helping families with foreign background in integrating into Swedish society. Nonetheless, studies also show that families with foreign backgrounds in general, and those in risk of being racialized as Muslims in specific, pertains to groups that in different ways are marginalized in terms of access to the services in welfare institutions, although there are important variation of experiences within and across these groups. Issues that often are raised concern language barriers and socio-economic factors explaining a status as vulnerable. There are also other factors such as discrimination, stereotyping and stigmatizing discourses against families with a foreign background in welfare institutions. Thus, performing 'migrant respectability' can be a strategy to avoid stigmatization and stereotypes when they access welfare institutions such as the family central in Sweden.
Additionally, intersectionality is an important analytical tool in this research to further understand how families with foreign backgrounds and perceived as Muslims may experience discrimination in different ways because of their gender, ethnicity, religion, class ... etc. and thus perform respectability differently when they reach the family center in Sweden.
Questions structuring the project are as follows:
1. How do parents who are in risk of being racialized as Muslims by staff and others, experience going to family centrals in Sweden, and are there differences in their experience based on variations of age, gender, ethnicities, class, etc.?
2. What strategies of acceptance, resistance and negotiation are used in relation to the risk of being exposed to discrimination and stereotypes as migrant Muslims at family centrals in Sweden?
3) Do the parents visits to the family central affect their ideas and practices on family rearing?
The method that will be used in collecting data is qualitative interviews with parents who have a background in Muslim dominated countries. The study's organization limits participation to people who are born or have at least one parent who is born in a country whose majority population is Muslims, and that regularly access or used to access (in the last 5 years) the family central in Sweden.



Publications

Rudeina.mkdad (2018). Problem representations of ‘racisms’ between people with migrant background in online Swedish mass media (master dissertation). Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-158105

Other Academic Output

• 2019 Facilitators and moderator in ''#fokus på migration, lärande och social inkludering'', Norrköping.
• 2017 LiU participant and note taker in the conference ''Towards a Global and Inclusive University Community'', Stockholm.
• 2017 LiU participant in the event ''Norrkoping, city of migration'', Norrköping municipality.
• 2017 LiU participant and note taker in the conference "Welcoming Refugees Local European", Norrköping.
• 2015 presenter, ''The Haramlik: An Exploration of the Patriarchal Colonial ''Self '' in the Patriarchal Colonized 'Other''', Hageby Library, Norrköping.

2019 - 2023

Funding

Linköpings universitet

REMESO Project Leader

Rudeina Mkdad, PhD Student

Scientifically Responsible

Anders Neergaard, Professor

Participants not from REMESO

Contact for project

anders.neergaard@liu.se


Last updated: 2019-12-27



Page responsible: erik.berggren@liu.se
Last updated: 2020-05-27