Narratives of Belonging: Migrant Children’s Friendship Negotiation

Abstract

This chapter reports findings of life story interviews with Swedish immigrant children aged 9–13 from non-urban areas, reflecting on their younger childhood experiences of belonging, relationships with other children and friendship negotiation. Some of the children were newly arrived, and some of them were born in Sweden. Using Corsaro’s (The sociology of childhood, 3rd edn. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2011) concept of peer culture as theoretical framework and analytical tool, the premise of the chapter is that preschools, schools and other education arenas play a central role in society through their mandate to foster children as democratic citizens. Studying the conditions and opportunities available to the children in these education arenas promotes understanding of which individuals and groups are included and which are excluded in differing contexts, thus making issues of power visible. The results of the study show that establishing relationships with friends involves extensive relational and emotional effort. The children describe what it is like to have and not to have friends and how adults are and are not included. The narratives display several aspects of how entering into comradeship is conditional and connected to immigrant conditions and also to the local community codes, for example, religious and cultural meeting places.