Negotiating deficiency: Exploring ethnic minority parents' narratives about encountering child welfare services in Norway

Abstract

Evaluating the participatory opportunities for service users within social welfare institutions is a pressing issue. In this article, we explore a group of ethnic minority parents' experiences with child welfare services (CWS) in Norway. A strong narrative theme was deficiency positioning-how lacking a Norwegian normative set of knowledge and skills challenged the parents' opportunities to participate. We analysed how deficiency positioning was perceived, negotiated, and contested in the parents' accounts, and 4 themes emerged: (a) learning to parent, (b) contesting expert knowledge, (c) learning to be a client, and (d) constructing CWS deficiency. Nancy Fraser's concept of "participatory parity" was applied to explore how current institutional structures may enable and limit parents' participation. The analysis provides insight into agencies and informants' sense-making processes as well as the diverse resources and strategies that parents draw upon in the CWS encounter.Furthermore, we argue that an interplay between a strong focus on "parenting skills" and bureaucratic and economic structures positions ethnic minority parents as deficient, thus providing powerful mechanisms for marginalization. Implications for case work and institutional levels are discussed. Paul's reference to the "scandal" of poor information for refugees about the mandate of Norwegian CWS can be linked to recent debates in international media where ethnic minority parents criticize Norwegian CWS, stating that these services lack cultural sensitivity and wrongfully intervene in families' lives (Skivenes, 2014). Paul's claim can also be linked to a broader debate within social work regarding cultural diversity and the competencies that social workers must possess to meet the specific needs of ethnic minority populations (Freund & Band-Winterstein, 2015;Williams, 2006).In this article, we explore these questions from the perspective of ethnic minority parents who have encountered Norwegian CWS. We --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Recurrence, eruptions, and a transnational turn: Three decades of strained relations between migrants to Norway and the Child Welfare Services

“…), but whether and how this explains distrust cannot be determined. Moreover, most studies, carried out in Norway or elsewhere, that highlight fear and distrust tend to focus on migrant parents who are already engaged by the CWS, that is, "users" (e.g., Fylkesnes et al, 2015;Fylkesnes, Iversen, & Nygren, 2018), or rely on interviews with case workers (Križ et al, 2012). Child welfare officers' perspectives on migrant issues have been the object of large-scale research (see Skivenes, 2015;Križ & Skivenes, 2010).…”

‘The art of kindergarten drop off’: how young Norwegian-Somali parents perform ethnicity to avoid reports to Child Welfare Services

“…Besides mistrust, research on child welfare and ethnic/migrant issues abounds internationally. Identified problems include cultural gaps and language issues (Dalikeni, 2019;Earner, 2007;Fylkesnes, Iversen, & Nygren, 2018;Križ & Skivenes, 2010), and lack of cultural competence among CWS officers (Nordic examples are Anis, 2005;Willis, Pathak, Khambhaita, & Evandrou, 2017). Although some authors are critical of the emphasis on cultural sensitivity, arguing that social work should be more sensitive to how social problems relate to poverty (Barn, 2007;Dean, 2001), cultural sensitivity is a dominant theme in the existing research, and in professional practice.…”

“If they misbehaved, we took a stick to discipline them”: Refugee mothers' struggles raising children in the United States

“…Refugee parents face struggles due to lack of social support, resource limitations, as well as institutional barriers that hamper their access to service delivery (Fylkesnes, Iversen, & Nygren, ). Fylkesnes et al () challenge the notion of refugee families as passive receivers in child welfare service access and recommend that professionals be aware of migratory stressors that refugee families face while serving them. Clevenger, Derr, Cadge, and Curran () delineates a need for moral responsibility to provide hospitality to refugees and a common asset frame focusing on human rights.…”