A Space for Motherhood? Contact Visits from the Perspectives of Mothers with Migration Experiences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5933455 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eirinn Hesvik Ljones (0000-0002-8835-6954, NORCE Research AS, corresponding author), Øivin Christiansen (0000-0002-3800-8732, NORCE Research AS), Marte Knag Fylkesnes (0000-0002-3421-1768, NORCE Research AS) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 216 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0760 • E-ISSN: 2076-0760 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/socsci14040216 |
| OpenAlex | W4408995642 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 41 |
When a child is placed in out-of-home care, parents must adapt their parenting to a unique situation governed by Child Welfare Services (CWS). Contact arrangements between parents and children are particularly important, as they provide the primary opportunity for parents to maintain a meaningful connection and participate in their children's lives. This article explores how mothers with migration experiences navigate their motherhood when it is regulated by the CWS in Norway. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and a photo-elicitation task with eight birth mothers, the study sheds light on how they perceive and talk about staying connected with their children living in out-of-home care during contact visits. Three themes were identified through a narrative-inspired thematic analysis: (1) mothers' active efforts to organise meaningful contact visits for their children; (2) their struggles to maintain family cohesion and belonging; and (3) the constraints they face in their emotional care work due to regulated and limited contact. These findings illustrate how contact visits function as an essential but also challenging space for motherhood. We argue that by recognising mothers' perspectives, resources, and challenges during the limited and regulated contact visits, CWS can offer more culturally sensitive and supportive parental follow-up
Developmental psychology · Computer Science · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Psychology
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Families
Methodological challenges in cross-language qualitative research
Child removal as the gateway to further adversity
Parents at war
Parenting during a child's placement
Rethinking Family Practices
Thematic Analysis
The place of children in the imaginary of welfare states
Parents with Children in Foster Care — How Do They Perceive Their Contact with Social Workers
Newcomer parents with child welfare histories
Intergenerational perspectives on refugee children and youth's adaptation to life in Norway
Not trustworthy. African parents’ perspectives on Norwegian child protection care measures
Governing the family
Negotiating deficiency
Trial and error
Looked after children's right to contact with birth parents
To understand the incomprehensible
Family practices in time and space
It felt like it was night all the time’
Contemporary discourses on children and parenting in Norway
The ethnic identity complexity of transculturally placed foster youth in the Netherlands
Managing Loss and a Threatened Identity
Navigating emotions in child welfare
Relational and cultural continuity for children in foster care; A critical exploration of national policies in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England, Ireland and Scotland
Black Mothers, Bad Mothers
Haunted futures
The negotiation of culture in foster care placements for separated refugee and asylum seeking young people in Ireland and England
Displaying Families
Transmission of child removal stories Among Norwegian Somalis
Photo-Elicitation Interviews with Vulnerable Populations
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |