Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 26

CHILDREN IN MIGRANT FAMILIES: PARENTING STRATEGIES IN TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXTS

Olga Brednikova

Centre for Independent Social Research
87 Ligovsky Prosrect, off. 301, St Petersburg, Russia
bred8()yandex.ru

Guzel Sabirova

National Research University Higher School of Economics
16 Soyuza Pechatnikov Str., St Petersburg, Russia
gsabirova()hse.ru

Abstract: The central focus of this article are parental strategies of migrants from Central Asia in St. Petersburg. We understand parenting strategies as a set of ideas and practises on the implementation of parenthood, which include parental involvement and care in the context of migration; the decision-making process on the migration of children and the sending back them to their home country; parents’ actions in relation to their child’s integration in a particular environment; the emotional support of parenthood and others. The parenting strategies presented in this paper are unfolding in transnational contexts. The article is mainly based on the investigation of individual cases of families with a history of migration (interviews with parents, children and family observations in different contexts) in 2013 and 2014. Parent-child relationships, migration strategy concerning children, remote participation in the practises of childcare, the concept of education in "doubling" frames of reference, and social realities in terms of transnationalism remain quite relevant and actively developing themes. Russian migration policy is not ready to accept the fact of family migration or change conditions. Therefore, migrant children are not included in social support programs, and their well-being is determined by their parental strategies. The findings show that while caring for the well-being of the children, migrant parents try to choose or to recreate a more or less definite and clear context of life for them, avoiding the duality of transnationalism. Parents choose how and where the child will feel better in migration or at home. Transnational contexts problematise parenthood: they not only provide new opportunities, but also become a serious challenge, particularly when it comes to the problems of children integrating and the need to define and create a comfortable and perspective cultural frame of reference.

Keywords: transnationalism, children of migrants, strategies of migrant parents.

To cite: Brednikova O., Sabirova G., 'Deti v migrantskikh semyakh: roditelskie strategii v transnatsionalnykh kontekstakh' [Children in Migrant Families: Parenting Strategies in Transnational Contexts], Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 26, pp. 127–152.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/026/brednikova_sabirova.pdf