Support systems for immigrant single parents

Fuhui Chen, MA in international studies in education

"Immigrants who are single parents manage to adapt to Icelandic society, provide for their families and balance work and family responsibilities with the help of various kinds of assistance from the social system," says Fuhui Chen, who graduated with an MA in international studies in education in the spring of 2013. "I have explored the ways in which immigrant single parents make a living and I also sought to understand the experiences of the children in the education system." 

Fuhui is Chinese and has herself been a foreigner in Iceland. "I am extremely interested in the concerns of immigrants. I chose this subject because of how little is known about immigrant single parents. I think this group deserves more attention, as does the education of their children," says Fuhui. 

Immigrants make up almost nine percent of the population of Iceland according to 2012 data from Statistics Iceland. The number of single parent families is 7.2%, 16.2% of the total of nuclear families. "Support for single parents who are immigrants in Iceland is generally good, whether that be support networks, financial assistance from the government or special accommodations in schools, and they are also generally recognised in society," adds Fuhui. 

She hopes that her research will give this specific minority group a voice, as well as creating new research data on Icelandic society and the Icelandic education system. "The individual stories I have collected in interviews for this research project could be helpful for other immigrant single parents. They contain information on where this group can get help and support and the best way to manage the education of the children of immigrants in Iceland," she concludes.

Supervisor: Hanna Ragnarsdóttir, professor at the Faculty of Education Studies.