“This Is My Responsibility”: Parental Experience of Former Soviet Union Immigrant Parents in Israel

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on the parenting experience of immigrant parents from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel. Seventeen in-depth open interviews with FSU immigrant parents were conducted. All participants had been living in Israel between one-and-a-half and five years and had adolescent children aged 11 to 17. The central theme that emerges from the interviews is the participants' sense of parental responsibility, which is based on four central components: control, involvement, discipline, and parental guidance. Immigration challenges the participants' abilities to fulfil their responsibilities as parents by exposing them and their children to cultural differences in child-rearing practices and language difficulties. Pressures of work and learning to live in a new culture may lead to a lack of emotional and physical availability to their children. Participants try to cope with these challenges by maintaining child-rearing practices used in the FSU. Many parents report this means of coping as unsuccessful and feel helpless and uncertain in tackling new parental dilemmas posed by immigration.

You Have to Start from Scratch and You Need Someone by Your Side”: Perspectives of Parents and Teachers on Immigrant Students’ Adaptation to School

“…Thus, the teacher is expected to help parents understand the local educational system and maintain their role as involved parents. The teacher should also be aware of the significant change in parent‐child relations that often accompanies cultural transition (Yakhnich, ).…”

“…Most immigrant parents experience substantial stress; they are exposed to new and unfamiliar parental tasks and have limited social support. This potentially challenges their ability to cope with parenting tasks, increases their distress, and reduces their self‐esteem and functioning (Yakhnich, ). Their confidence in their ability to be competent parents in a new cultural environment is significantly correlated with their own psychological adjustment (Costigan and Koryzma, ).…”

“…The parents are highly motivated to invest in the children’s upbringing, especially their education (Mirsky and Prawer, ; Yakhnich, ). Relationships between immigrant parents from the FSU and their children are frequently characterized by a high degree of protectiveness and involvement, with emphasis on the full authority of parents over their children’s lives (Tudge et al, ; Leipzig, ; Yakhnich, ). Russian‐speaking parents in Israel often report cultural differences between the child‐rearing practices prevalent in the FSU and in Israel, and experience Israeli child‐rearing as indulgent and failing to set limits.…”

“…In Israel, with its predominantly Western orientation toward child‐rearing, these expectations may cause immigrant parents to be disappointed. For example, immigrant parents from the FSU in Israel report they are very disturbed by the lack of discipline in the Israeli schools and perceive Israeli teachers as unable to exercise their authority (Yakhnich, ).…”

“…When immigrant students join the educational system in a host country, it poses significant challenges for their parents and teachers. Existent literature suggests that the encounter of immigrant parents with officials and educational staff in schools is often stressful, and may affect the parents’ sense of competence, parental efficacy (Yakhnich, ) and willingness to be involved in their children’s education (Sibley and Dearing, ). Moreover, parents are also coping with the challenges of immigration and inter‐cultural gaps, which may affect their attitude to the educational system and their ability to handle with its requirements (Dwairy and Dor, ; Mirsky, ).…”