ResuméNytilkomne familier bliver mødt med mange krav fra den danske velfærdsstat. Et af kravene er, at de skal sende deres 0-6 årige børn i dagtilbud, så forældrene kan gå på sprogskole eller komme i praktik. Artiklen belyser nogle af de dilemmaer, der opstår i forældresamarbejdet i mødet mellem pædagoger og nytilkomne familier. Disse dilemmaer udspringer af den myndighedsrolle som pædagogerne har, samtidig med at de ofte får en tæt relation til forældrene, og har et oprigtigt ønske om at hjælpe både børn og forældre til at kunne navigere rundt i det danske samfund. Artiklen bygger på etnografisk feltarbejde i fire kommuner, og de valgte eksempler viser, hvordan pædagogerne navigerer mellem omsorg og magtudøvelse, og hvordan magtrelationen mellem forældre og pædagoger kan være uklar for forældrene og i nogle tilfælde også for pædagogerne selv. Artiklen giver ikke svar på dilemmaerne, men peger på behovet for en stadig professionel refleksion over de pædagogiske udfordringer i forældresamarbejdet samt over den politiske kontekst, som forældresamarbejde med nytilkomne familier indgår i. AbstractChildren of the state or children of the family? Care and coercion in the encounter between refugee families and Danish day-care institutions. Newly arrived families in Denmark are faced with multiple requirement by the Danish welfare state and it is mandatory that they send their children to Danish day-care institutions. Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in four day-care institutions in Denmark this article sheds light on some of the dilemmas that arise in the encounter between refuge families and Danish pedagogues. More specifically we focus on the notion “forældresamarbejde” – a term which connotes the widespread idea that parents and institutions must communicate in an intimate way and work together to create the best circumstances for the concerted cultivation of children. Through concrete ethnographic cases we discuss how pedagogues attempt to manage the dilemma between caring for children without disempowering their parents and argue that the pedagogical task requires tact and sensitivity faced with dilemmas that admit no easy resolution since they are inherently contradictory.

This article is based on anthropological fieldwork undertaken at two elite universities in Beijing. It addresses the paradoxical situation of the many instances of suicide among Chinese elite university students in Beijing, which constitute a public secret. The pressure of education weighs heavily on the shoulders of China's only child in each family, known as the generation of little emperors and little empresses. Since the 1980s, the suzhi jiaoyu reforms (education for quality) have involved various attempts to reduce the pressure of education. However, simultaneously the aim is to increase the competitiveness of individuals. Drawing on existential and phenomenological thought, I suggest that the discourse seems to objectify and quantify a concern for well-being, rather than recognising its intersubjective character. Finally, I argue that the suicides are controversial since they are seen as a form of social criticism.

This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out among what Lian Si (2009) has called China’s ‘ant tribe’, referring to the millions of unemployed Chinese college graduates who live in the outskirts of Beijing and to some extent share the predicament of China’s migrant workers. Education has been the main route to social mobility for centuries in China, but today college graduates are outnumbering jobs in China’s large cities. I focus on the relationship between the fantasy of education as a route to social mobility and the actuality. By narrating the biographies of two university graduates, Jing Jing and Bai Gang, who attempted but partly failed to transcend the boundary between rural and urban China, I show how their quests for social mobility and a more fulfilling life were tied to economic, legal and cultural constraints. I argue that the quest for a better life through educational migration may lead to physical mobility, but that existential mobility is lacking and this sometimes leads to instances of suicide, just as is the case for Chinese migrant workers who feel trapped in appalling working conditions.

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