Abstract
In Norway, the majority population has generally accepted and internalized gender egalitarian values. Public childcare is universal and for parents plays an important role in work-family balance. The male-breadwinner model has become a contested family model. Local care and welfare regimes aim to integrate women and migrants into the labour market and children into local communities. For migrant mothers who come from European contexts dominated by the Catholic Church and gender conservative family values, developing new care strategies in Norway can cause social tensions, transnational challenges as well as individual empowerment. This chapter discusses how local gender regimes and public-care arrangements in Norway influence Polish and Italian mothers’ migration experiences.
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Notes
- 1.
Migration from Poland to Norway came as a response to the EU-extension in 2004. Today, close to 100,000 Poles live in Norway, and they constitute the largest group of migrants (SSB 2016). In recent years, more women and children have arrived as parts of family reunification, and an increasing number of families aim to settle and build a future in the host society (Erdal 2015).
- 2.
An increasing number of Italians arrived in Norway after the financial crisis that hit Italy in 2007. They constitute a relatively small group of immigrants (2291 men and 1234 women, SSB 2015).
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Isaksen, L.W., Czapka, E. (2018). Gender and Care in Transnational Families: Empowerment, Change, and Tradition. In: Crespi, I., Giada Meda, S., Merla, L. (eds) Making Multicultural Families in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59755-3_12
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