Conference Programme (PDF, 1019KB) - Trinity College Dublin

abstracts by stream and session
The study uses a qualitative multi-actor longitudinal (panel) research design that combines semi-structured interviews (with Polish
teens, their parents and their teachers) with standardised measurements (questionnaires) in order to describe patterns of acculturation
trajectories and patterns of employed strategies.
The first findings reveal that young Polish teenagers sometimes face severe language problems resulting in being moved to lower
streams in school. The experience of social exclusion and of separation from and re-unification with their parents in conjunction with
the status lowering of their parents in the host country produces very dynamic and demanding relations. There is also evidence that the
vibrant processes of identity-formation and adjustment undergo a permanent process of re-definition and re-construction accounting
for variation in acculturation outcomes. The first wave of conducted interviews indicates that sometimes relations with peers from other
ethnic groups can lead to ‘negative social mirroring’ or to ‘acculturative stress’. Therefore there is a need for further investigation because
the new migration has posed many challenges for many Irish schools. Further enquiry will also provide better understanding of the
acculturation phenomena of Polish teens in the Irish context.
“My nationality is Capricorn” - narratives of Russian-speaking adolescents and their parents on migration and its influence on family
practices, parental aspirations and adolescents position at school
Svetlana Eriksson, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Target groups: 30 Russian-speaking families from Russia and Latvia currently living in Ireland
Control groups: 15 Russian-speaking families in Russia, 15 Russian-speaking families in Latvia and 15 Irish families in Ireland where one
child has a Russian-speaking classmate
Intergenerational transmission of cultural capital, ethnic identity and values is thought to be more effective in migrant families than in
national/non migrant families, particularly due to strong kinship ties which provide migrants with material and emotional
interdependence; it appears to be an important coping resource and provides continuity with the past (Bryceson and Vuorela 2002; Foner
1997; Goodwin 1999). Sometimes the image of one’s family is thus idealized by migrant children: family as a “happy home” with “precious
objects” (de Leeuw and Rydin 2007,456). Thus, migration acts as a transmission belt, which Schönpflug defines as conditions favourable
for transmission in a particular socioeconomic and cultural context, such as personal characteristics of the transmitter and the receiver
(resources of education and age), and family interaction variables (parenting styles and marital relationship, child-parent dynamics), and
transmission contents (Schönpflug, 2001).
“We wish our children a better life than we had...”
“We are Russian, but our children are Irish...”
“It is amazing how flexible children are and how easily they integrate into the host society!”
These are just a few comments that were obtained during 30 semi-structured interviews conducted with Russian-speaking families from
Russia and Latvia. These comments are not new, nor are they surprising in any way.
The first one is a common reason for families to migrate to another country. The other two bring relief or sorrow to migrant parents when
they are looking back at their decision in hope that it was the right one, and that their children are of the same opinion. Are these beliefs
shared by their children? In the semi-structured interviews I have conducted, children reflect on their position in the classroom and
comment on their lifestyles in Ireland. Their narratives are then compared with perceptions of their parents and their Irish classmates.
Migrant parents are torn by the dilemma: I do not want my children to be strangers in their own family, but I also want them to feel
comfortable in the new context. Is this achievable? Do parents’ aspirations change with migration? Do they remain traditionalists as may
often be the case when families from traditionalist countries find themselves in a new individualist context (Nauck, 2001a, Nauck 2001b,
Nauck 1989), or do they adjust their parental goals and aspirations in accordance with their perceptions of the Irish context? Parents from
the target and control groups dwell on what values they prioritise when bringing their children up, and what motives lie behind this
prioritisation. Families also comment on the distribution of their family roles. A comparative analysis helps to see how the family dynamic
differs in the groups under study.
This study aims at finding out if migration, indeed, is a transmission belt in the complex process of intergenerational transmission of
cultural capital within Russian-speaking migrant families in Ireland.
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