This article discusses heterogeneity of family and parental practices among Polish migrant fathers in Norway. The paper begins with a recollection of the contemporary approaches to masculinities, and addresses the emergence of "new fatherhood" in both family scholarship and migration studies. In the conclusion to the theoretical section, we reflect on transnational parenting in the context of male mobility. The empirical basis for the study stems from a combination of biographic and narrative interviews with members of Polish migrant families in Norway: ten Polish couples and two interviews conducted with fathers alone (the interviews were reviewed for this article from the broader research dedicated to the Polish families in Norway). In the analysis, we draw on the significance of the institutional support and social expectations for creating new patterns of being a father, yet we also underline the salient importance of individual, biographical elements that certainly influence the every-day practices of Polish migrant fathers. We put forward a general conclusion that there is not a singular fathering or fatherhood type among the Polish men in Norway, but rather a continuum of various family arrangements, often propelled by men, is observed. It is therefore crucial to look at the biographies which suggest social change and a shift towards a "new fatherhood".

Care for young children continues to highly influence the life chances of men and women, even more so when they are migrants. For migrant women, childcare remains a particular challenge when their kin are absent and the gendered norms of work and family life abroad diverge from what they have known in the country of origin. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of social class and childcare strategies of migrant women by combining two research projects with migrants from Poland to Germany and the UK. Accounts represented in this article depict the ways in which migrant mothers interpret and use the available childcare options, thereby highlighting how class-based resources are deployed and reproduced in two different welfare regimes. The comparative approach pursued in the article reveals that it is neither class nor national context that has a capacity to determine early childcare choices on its own. Instead, it is an intricate interplay of social protections’ availability, gender norms and social class, which together engender various childcare strategies.

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