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Parent and Child Dynamics within Immigrant Families : Challenges and Opportunities for IntegrationAppelgren, Joakim, Watters, Lisa January 2022 (has links)
Immigrating into a new country can be a stressful, emotional and traumatic experience. Many immigrants have entered Sweden in recent years and have found the family dynamics have altered and that the children have taken on a more dominant role. Children have learned the language quicker and have therefore integrated into society more easily than their parents which has increased the children’s ability to use their knowledge regarding Swedish society to manipulate the parents. This study aims to investigate how family dynamics alter following immigration and also the challenges and opportunities faced by families with regards integration within Swedish society. A qualitative method was used with semi structured questions to professionals working within this field. The results were analysed using a flexible approach and common themes were abstracted and discussed using systems theory, social learning theory and also previous research. From the findings it could be identified that there were gaps in the system in supporting the parents on integrating into Swedish society. It was also evident that the power dynamics changed following immigration and the children had a more dominant role within the family.
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Performing Bilingualism: An Ethnographic Analysis of Discursive Practices at a Day Labor Center in the SouthwestDuBord, Elise M. January 2008 (has links)
This ethnographic research examines the social implications of the ethnolinguistic contact that occurs in the U.S.-Mexico border region at a day labor center in Tucson, Arizona. I discuss the multiple values of English and Spanish in this setting and how individuals interpret and negotiate these values in the construction and performance of identity. More specifically, I analyze how discourses of linguistic capital shape the organization of this community and influence the dynamics of employment negotiations. The research setting includes immigrant day laborers (primarily from Mexico and Central America), employers who contract workers, and bilingual volunteers who act as language brokers between workers and their employers; all of whom use language to interactively negotiate their social status as they construct identities vis-à-vis other members of the community. My analysis reveals a discourse that places a high level of linguistic capital on Spanish-English bilingualism in the economic market. Although I have not found evidence that this linguistic capital has a real exchange rate into dollars, my data demonstrates that immigrants rapidly acquire and contribute to this locally constructed discourse. I explore the techniques that workers use to exploit and promote their language abilities through ‘performances’ of bilingualism that are realized not only to secure employment, but also for social positioning within this community of practice. Language, then, is one of the many tools that both workers and employers use in the construction of interpersonal relationships and social hierarchies. In addition, I analyze gatekeeping encounters focusing on the rapid employment negotiations that occur between day laborers and their employers, building on previous research with regard to the concepts of rapport, co-membership, and the presentation of an institutional self. Finally, I propose a model for the study of intercultural communication and contact that reflects the dynamic nature of contact and the complexity of overlapping categories of identity. Identity formation is a multiplex and multidirectional social construction that necessitates pushing beyond binary models of intercultural communication. Identity construction is informed not only by face-to-face interlocutors, but also by the linguistic ecology of dominant and subordinate discourses and the imagined individual and collective interlocutors they evoke.
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