Session Information
07 SES 03 A, Irish Research on Intercultural Education and Social Justice
Paper Session
Contribution
There is increasing interest in migrant children’s contribution to family processes of integration. Much of the research documents their challenges and struggles to belong in the settlement society (Bak & Brömssen, 2010, Devine, 2013). Relatively under-researched has been the affective dynamics at play in the migrant process and the importance of practices of love and care in the everyday lives of migrant children (Luttrell 2013, Parrenas, 2005). At issue here is the impact of immigration on intimate relations, feelings of happiness, deep love, care, loss, suffering, solidarity and attachment to family and significant others (Lynch, Baker & Lyons, 2009). In this paper we are interested in the intersection between the affective domains of migrant children’s lives (practices of love, care and solidarity between children, parents and teachers), and how their ‘care worlds’ (Lynch et al, 2009) are involved in structuring identities in migration. The affective practices of parents and their children are particularly highlighted in migration as they work (or not) to preserve core valued identities and attachments to their place of origin while reworking identities and belongings in the settlement context (Ní Laoire, Carpena-Méndez, Tyrell and White, 2011; Skrbis, Baldassar, & Poynting, 2007). The nature, quality and recognition of their care worlds – at home and in schools will ease or complicate transitions for them (Luttrell, 2013, Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, 2002). Bourdieu (1998: 68) in his essay ‘The family Spirit’ illustrates the interdependence between parents and children, united by intense affective bonds, which through practical and symbolic work create a collective ‘family feeling’, embedded in ‘devotion, generosity and solidarity’. Our concern is to foreground the ‘practical and symbolic’ work migrant children and their parents engage in as part of the ‘obligation to love’ - the practices that generate a ‘loving disposition’ that is at the core of family inter-generational dynamics. These in turn, we argue, influence wider patterns of belonging and adaptation by migrant children in the society, especially through their experiences in schools.
The paper explores how the affective system (care and solidary practices) shapes patterns of belonging among migrant children and considers how these experiences of identity making and belonging work across home and school are mediated by migration status; economic, social and cultural capitals. Through loving and care relations children develop dispositions – a habitus – not only feelings of solidarity, intimacy and loyalty but also feelings of shame, sadness, failure and exclusion that set the groundwork for their subsequent relations with others (Reay, 2005). These issues are of particular relevance to understanding the lives of migrant children where inequalities related to poverty, migration status (economic migrant or asylum seeker) and racism (Devine, 2011) are especially prevalent.
Drawing on a deep ethnographic study of ten diverse migrant families (parent and child) the paper highlights how intergenerational practices of love, care and solidarity – the creation of a ‘family feeling (Bourdieu1998) are central to the negotiation of belonging in the settlement country. However, affective practices, it is argued, are interconnected with access to economic, social and cultural resources giving rise to substantive differences in how migrant children negotiate the transition between home and school. The paper considers the love, care and solidarity practices between migrant children and their parents in a context of transition to living in Ireland. Understanding the impact of affective practices in migrant children’s lives is important in not only understanding interdependency and agency in the migration process (Devine, 2013) but also in understanding how affective dynamics are influenced by the wider economic, social and cultural capitals migrant families draw upon.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Baker, J., Lynch, K., Cantillon, S. and J. Walsh (2009) Equality: From theory to action (2nd edition). New York: Palgrave. Bourdieu, P. (1986) ‘The forms of capital’ in A. H. Halsey and H. Lauder et al (eds) Education, culture, economy and society. Oxford: University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1998) ‘The family spirit’ in P. Bourdieu, Practical Reason, pp. 64-74,. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. and J. C. Passeron (1997) Reproduction in education, culture and society (R. Nice, Trans) London: Sage. Devine, D. (2011) Immigration and schooling in the Republic of Ireland: making a difference? Manchester: Manchester University Press. Devine, D (2013) ‘Value’ing Children Differently? Migrant Children in Education’, Children & Society (27): 282–294. Luttrell, W. (Ed) (2010a) Qualitative educational research: readings in reflexive methodology and transformative practice. New York & London: Routledge. Luttrell, W. (2010b) ‘A camera is a big responsibility’ a lens for analysing children’s voice’. Visual Studies, 25(3): 223 -237. Luttrell, W. (2013) ‘Children’s Counter-narratives of Care: Towards Educational Justice’. Children & Society (27): 295–308 Lynch, K., Baker, J. and M. Lyons. (2009) Affective equality: Love, care and injustice. New York, Palgrave. Ní Laoire, C., Ní Laoire, Carpena-Méndez, Bushin and A. White (2011) Childhood and Migration in Europe: Portraits of Mobility, Identity & Belonging in Contemporary Ireland, UK: Ashgate Publishing. Orellana, M.F., Thorne, B., Chee, A. and W.S.E Lam (2001) ‘Transnational childhoods: The participation of children in processes of family migration’. Social Problems, 48: 572–591. Parrenas, R. (2005) ‘Long distance intimacy: class, gender and intergenerational relations between mothers and children in Filipino transnational families’. Global Networks 5(4): 317–336. Pérez Carreón, G., Drake, C. & Calabrese Barton, A. (2005). The importance of presence: immigrant parents’ school engagement experiences. American Educational Research Journal, 42:465-498. Reay, D. (2000) ‘A useful extension of Bourdieu's conceptual framework? Emotional capital as a way of understanding mothers' involvement in their children's education’. Sociological Review: 568-585. Suárez-Orozco, C. & M. Suárez-Orozco (2002) Children of Immigration. US: Harvard University Press.
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