Migrant parents and the politics of "good parenting" in Norway

Migrant parents and the politics of "good parenting" in Norway

This lecture explores parenting as a key site where power, gender, and migration intersect in contemporary welfare states. Drawing on qualitative research with migrant parents in Norway, it examines how ideals of “good parenting” are produced, professionalized, and moralized through expert advice and institutional encounters. The lecture highlights how migration intensifies scrutiny of parenting practices and reveals the politics underlying taken‑for‑granted norms of care, risk, and responsibility.

The lecture will be held in English.

Raquel Herrero‑Arias is an Associate Professor at the University of Bergen. With a background in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Social Work, her research draws on sociological and anthropological perspectives to examine parenting, migration, and family life. Her work focuses particularly on migrant and ethnic minority families, with research spanning migration and health, parenting and mothering, foster care, and intimate partner violence. Using qualitative methodologies, she is interested in how care practices and family life are shaped by social inequalities and welfare state interventions.