Child-rearing practices: cross cultural perspectives of African asylum-seeking families and child protection social workers in Ireland

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper is located within a conceptual framework of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism as seen through Critical Race Theory (CRT), cultural and racial politics of child protection/welfare social work. It reports on the findings of a broad qualitative study which explored the interactions of Black African asylum-seeking families with White child protection/welfare social workers in Ireland. The Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) was used to collect data, which was analysed using a framework analysis approach to produce themes. The paper focusses on the intercultural differences between mostly Black African asylum-seeking families and White social workers regarding child rearing practices in Ireland. A mixture of practice protocol, personal beliefs, racialised cultural understanding of normativity and mutual suspicions surface as central to the behaviours of social workers and ASF. Asylum seeking families reportedly perceive social workers as professionals who are disrespectful of their traditional child-rearing practices purportedly on assumptions of own racial/cultural superiority. Given the diversity of issues that are associated with Europe in relation to asylum seekers from the African continent, the lessons learned from this research could have widespread applications in affected countries.