The productive role of children in immigrant families

Lanuza, Yader R. (author), Bandelj, Nina (author)

This essay focuses on the productive role of children in immigrant families, and their various resource contributions. We first identify a contemporary understanding of children as targets of emotional and financial investment that parents make to secure their children's future success. This investment model views children as mostly passive receivers of resources. In contrast, we review research that showcases various productive contributions of children in immigrant families, including academic and language help, emotion work, and financial contributions. We end the review by identifying two theoretical perspectives that scholarship on productive role of children in immigrant families relies on, the social exchange theory, and the culture of collectivism. We contrast these two theories with a relational work perspective in economic sociology, which suggests that children's productive role in immigrant families is not only an example of instrumental reciprocity, or expression of collectivism, but part and parcel of relational work that involves dynamic negotiation of economic and social relations within and outside of immigrant families.

• Language: English
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2015
• Number of pages: Str. 417-435, 565
• Numbering: Letn. 52, št. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-85403
• UDC: 331.556.44:331.101.22-053.2
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 33416797
• Publication date in RUL: 20.09.2016

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Članek se osredotoča na produktivno vlogo otrok v imigrantskih družinah in njihov različen prispevek k družini. Najprej predstavimo sodobno razumevanje otrok kot objektov starševskih emocionalnih in finančnih naložb, ki naj bi zagotavljale uspešnost otrok v prihodnosti. Naložbeni model vidi otroke kot pasivne prejemnike virov in dobrin. Nasproti temu predstavljamo raziskave, ki kažejo na različne prispevke otrok v imigrantskih družinah, ki vključujejo pomoč pri akademskem in jezikovnem izobraževanju staršev in bratov/sester, emocionalno delo in finančne prispevke družini. Pregled sklenemo s predstavitvijo dveh teoretskih perspektiv, na katerih temelji raziskovanje produktivne vloge otrok v imigrantskih družinah - teorije družbene izmenjave in kulture kolektivizma. Ti dve teoriji primerjamo s perspektivo relacijskega dela v ekonomski sociologiji, ki trdi, da prispevek otrok v imigrantskih družinah ni samo primer instrumentalne recipročnosti ali izraz kolektivizma, ampak je tudi sestavni del relacijskega dela, ki vsebuje dinamično pogajanje ekonomskih in socialnih odnosov znotraj in zunaj imigrantskih družin.