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Immigration, Transition to Parenthood, and Parenting

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Gender, Family, and Adaptation of Migrants in Europe

Abstract

This chapter adopts a life-course perspective to show how transitioning to parenthood and parenting practices are negotiated and adjusted under the influence of both migrants’ childhoods and migration contexts. The method used for data collection was life-story interviews. For purposes of this study, were selected nine participants, exclusively women. Some mechanisms of parenting formation and transformation were identified by using both inductive and deductive procedures for data analyses. These methods elicited novel information on how women change during migrations with respect to child-rearing and familial patterns. The empirical data suggest that self-change in the case of young migrant mothers has gradually developed through awareness of one’s own qualities and internalization. These results show that understanding of acculturation requires a deeper analysis of psychological mechanisms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ‘Lucian Blaga’ University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania

    Anca Bejenaru

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  1. Anca Bejenaru
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ‘Lucian Blaga’ University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania

    Ionela Vlase

  2. ‘Lucian Blaga’ University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania

    Bogdan Voicu

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Bejenaru, A. (2018). Immigration, Transition to Parenthood, and Parenting. In: Vlase, I., Voicu, B. (eds) Gender, Family, and Adaptation of Migrants in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76657-7_7

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