Kunnskap om barns kollektive ansvarserfaringer og implikasjoner for tjenesteutøvelse i barnevernet

Abstract

A major goal of the Child Welfare Services is to provide the best possible support to children in challenging life situations, including cross-cultural children, in Norway. However, there is inadequate knowledge about cross-cultural children’s responsibility taking and its implications for service delivery in Norwegian municipalities. This chapter discusses the importance of increased knowledge of the responsibility-taking practices of cross-cultural children for Municipal Child Welfare Service workers’ service delivery. The authors based the chapter on literature from studies on responsibility-taking experiences of children from Peru, Norway and other countries outside Europe. The literature indicates that many children have responsibilities to work and contribute to the sustenance of their families. Often, the children experienced feelings of identity, belonging and pride in mastering work roles. It is, therefore, difficult to understand the practices of these children as destructive parentification. On the contrary, the expectation that children provide for the upkeep of their families often attracts the destructive parentification label in European countries. Also, we argue that nuanced understanding of cross-cultural children’s responsibility-taking practices and identities may equip Child Welfare Services workers with competence that may enable them to provide the best possible support to cross-cultural children in Norway.