Navigating Family Relationships and a Sense of Home in Foster Care: The Experiences of Children With Migration Backgrounds

Eirinn Hesvik Ljones; Marte Knag Fylkesnes; Milfrid Tonheim

doi:10.1111/cfs.13312

journal article Open Access May 25, 2025

Navigating Family Relationships and a Sense of Home in Foster Care: The Experiences of Children With Migration Backgrounds

Eirinn Hesvik Ljones

Marte Knag Fylkesnes

Milfrid Tonheim

Child & Family Social Work Vol. 31 No. 2 pp. 692-702 · Wiley

View at Publisher Save 10.1111/cfs.13312

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Establishing a sense of belonging and home in foster care can be demanding for children, as placement involves discontinuities such as ruptures with family and networks. For children with migration backgrounds, this can include adapting to new languages, traditions, religious and cultural practices. In this study, we shed light on how children with migration backgrounds in foster care experience and navigate contact with their birth family and how their birth family relationships support and hinder their sense of home. Seven children and young people in foster care in Norway shared their experiences through interviews and photo elicitation. Reflexive thematic analysis and a theoretical framework of home were used to unpack how participants talked about relationships with birth family across the foster care trajectory. We present two main themes: (1) contact as complex social processes through the life course, illustrating how the participants navigated local and transnational family relationships governed by the CWS; (2) doing family: everyday life practices, showing how the participants created coherence and a sense of home by incorporating family into everyday life and utilizing their heritage language. We argue that recognizing children's various relationships and family practices is essential for supporting their home‐making process in foster care.

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Details

Published: May 25, 2025
Vol/Issue: 31(2)
Pages: 692-702
License: View

Authors

E

Eirinn Hesvik Ljones

Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare Norwegian Research Centre NORCE Bergen Norway

M

Marte Knag Fylkesnes

Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare Norwegian Research Centre NORCE Bergen Norway; Department of Health Promotion and Development University of Bergen Bergen Norway

M

Milfrid Tonheim

Health & Social Sciences Division Norwegian Research Centre NORCE Bergen Norway; Department of Welfare and Participation, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Bergen Norway

Funding

Norges Forskningsråd Award: 302183

Cite This Article

Eirinn Hesvik Ljones, Marte Knag Fylkesnes, Milfrid Tonheim (2025). Navigating Family Relationships and a Sense of Home in Foster Care: The Experiences of Children With Migration Backgrounds. Child & Family Social Work, 31(2), 692-702. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.13312

Navigating Family Relationships and a Sense of Home in Foster Care: The Experiences of Children With Migration Backgrounds

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