‘I Want Good Children, Also for this Country’: How Dutch Minority Muslim Parents’ Experience and Negotiate Parenting, Parenthood and Citizenship

ABSTRACT

This article investigates how minority Muslim parents experience and negotiate parenting, parenthood and citizenship in a context of increasing socio-political tensions. Drawing upon both parenting and parenthood as well as minority citizenship studies, it conceptualises parenthood as a domain for experiences of in- and exclusion of belonging to society. Based on an ethnographic study with self-organising Moroccan-Dutch parent groups, analyses show that political discourses contesting migrants’ belonging to society as well as disqualifications of minority parenting in parenting discourses and social services enter these families’ domestic lives in pervasive ways. As parents engage in socio-political dynamics in public spheres, they ground themselves in migratory, classed, historical, religious and globalised perspectives to express, counter and co-build parenthood and citizenship notions. As such, this study sheds light on how parents affirm their civic contribution to society as a parent, as well as on the civic nature of parenthood. Translating the findings to practice, this article draws attention to minority Muslim families’ diverse stances as child-rearing citizens.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to all the participating parents for sharing narratives and spaces and to the Attanmia Foundation and research assistants for our collaborative efforts. I am grateful, too, for extensive feedback on previous manuscripts by Prof. Marian JongmansERNAPE Conference 2017 and ISCAR Congress 2017 discussants and this journal’s anonymous reviewers. SLvB co-designed and executed the fieldwork and data analyses, and initiated, conceptualised and wrote the article. MdH initiated the study, co-designed and collaborated with the fieldwork, and supervised and edited the writing of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

S. L. van Beurden (Spark) is doctoral student at Utrecht University as well as trainer in the educational and social domain. Her work locates its interest in transcultural and collective learning among families and professionals, in relation to issues of diversity, self-organization, parenthood, citizenship and social power dynamics.

M. de Haan (Mariette) holds a Chair on Intercultural Education at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her work focuses on processes of learning and socialization in both formal and informal educational settings with an emphasis on cultural diversity and the dynamics of processes of socialization in changing social worlds.

Notes

1 The ‘West’ in this article refers to societies and regions that are strongly embedded in beliefs, norms and values as well as the political and economic organization of European heritage. Though debated and not perceived as ideal by the authors, this choice is made by lack of better alternative and in reference to its popular use in migration discourses in which this article locates its interest.

2 ‘I’ is used in this article, specifically referring to the first author when discussing fieldwork, though both authors are responsible for its content.

3 For Analytical Framework, see Online Supplement.

4 For original Dutch data excerpts and translations, see Online Supplement.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by ZonMw [grant number 729111012].