Adapted fathering for new times: refugee men's narratives on caring for home and children

Abstract

This study explores Middle Eastern men's narratives on how they adapt their fathering to new circumstances during resettlement in Sweden. It is based on individual interviews and diary notes collected over three years. Swedish policies encourage mothers as well as fathers to participate in paid labour and to be involved in household and child-care duties. Migrants who have been granted residency as refugees are entitled to extensive social welfare benefits, but they are also required to participate in language studies, accept trainee positions, and actively search for employment. The results of the present study suggest that the refugee fathers come to share daily chores and childcare with their spouse more equally than prior in their home countries. This new fatherhood is referred to in several ways: as a necessity to make family life work; as positive for the father–child relationship; and, as very time- and energy- consuming. Emerging masculinities and caring masculinities evolve in the analyses, and the results show comprehensive fathering, that is, fatherhood characterized by care, intimacy and love that are the result of hard, straining (reproductive) work that takes place with limited financial and/or cultural resources.

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