Contact and continuity for children with migration background in foster care. A study of children and parents' experiences

Background:

In Norway, increasingly more children in foster care have a different cultural background compared to the family they live with. The child welfare service (CWS) is responsible for emphasizing the child's ethnic, religious, cultural, and linguistic background when decisions are made. Today's practices have been criticized for not attending to children's cultural rights well enough, and reference is made to the need for adjustments in current CWS practices, including contact arrangements. In this project, we investigate how contact with biological family can support children with migration background's belonging and identity in foster care.

It is demanding for children to establish a sense of belonging and 'home' in foster care. Moving into foster care involves several discontinuities, such as ruptures with family and friends. Additionally, for children with migration background it often involves new language, traditions, and religious events. Research indicates that contact between children and their parents can contribute to continuity, positive identity development, and help to ensure the right to live in harmony with one's culture, religion or to use one's own language. However, limited knowledge exists of how contact is arranged and experienced by children and parents, especially regarding cultural rights.

Aim:

We will have a particular focus on how children and parents experience contact, and the quality of the collaboration between children, parents, foster parents and Child Welfare services. Furthermore, we will look at children's opportunities to influence the contact arrangement, as well as the importance of language, culture and identity when arranging contact between children and parents.

Method:

In order to gain in-depth knowledge of children's experiences, we will both talk to children and ask them to take pictures that represent 'home' for them. In addition, we will talk to a group of parents (not parents of the children who are interviewed) about their experiences of having contact and being together with their children in foster care, including collaboration with Child Welefare Services and the foster parents.

The project is linked to a larger study: Home and (dis) continuity: Foster care for children with a migration background (HoMi).