Parenting in Ethnic and Religious Minority Contexts in Norway

The aim of the project is to develop research-based knowledge about different forms of parenthood that co-exist in Norway, based on parents’ own perspectives.

• How do mothers and fathers from ethnic and/or religious minorities in Norway experience parenthood for children who approach and become teens?
• What is challenging for parents who see themselves as having other child-rearing ideals than what is common in majority society?
• How do minority parents experience their encounters with services and institutions of the welfare state? 

This project explores these questions through qualitative interviews with mothers and fathers recruited among ethnic and/or religious minorities in Norway.

A background for the project is critique against public family and childhood services and institutions for being premised on majority families’ norms and values. A further background is concern on the part of public authorities relating to gender equality and lack of autonomy for children and young people in some minority families.

The knowledge this project produces can contribute to developing public services that are adapted to different families’ needs.