Challenges and changes in the parenting experiences of Korean immigrants in New Zealand

Abstract

Immigrant parents are often confronted with the challenging task of reconciling cultural differences with regard to socialization practices. This paper explored the parenting experiences of 21 Korean immigrant parents of young children (ages 6–10), after immigrating to New Zealand. Most parents reported positive parenting changes following their migration to New Zealand, including greater encouragement of their children's autonomy and decreased emphasis on children's academic performance. The findings also highlighted challenges, such as parent-child disagreements and reduced parenting self-efficacy as parents adapted and adjusted to the new cultural context. In addition, the study identified some unique parenting challenges faced by fathers and Korean transnational parents, where mothers and young children immigrate to New Zealand to advance the children's education while fathers remain in Korea to support the family financially.

Japanese parents’ experiences supporting their school-aged children’s acculturation to the U.S.

“…Providing effective, culturally appropriate support for families’ acculturation begins with an understanding of parenting beliefs, practices, and experiences within new cultures. This study is one of the first that examines Asian immigrant and temporary resident parents’ socialization experiences within their new cultures (but see Lee and Keown, 2018; Uttal and Han, 2011).…”

“…Children also need to rely on adults to access available resources (Nukaga, 2012), such as friends who can support their acculturation to local schools (Akiyama, 2016). A robust literature examines the extent to which parents maintain their socialization practices of origin (e.g., Bornstein & Cote, 2004; Huang et al, 2017), but relatively little research examines how parents support children’s acculturation (but see Endo, 2016; Lee & Keown, 2018; Nukaga, 2012; Uttal & Han, 2011).…”

“…Acculturation also poses challenges for parents to integrate socialization goals and practices from diverse cultures (e.g., Bornstein & Cote, 2004; Lee & Keown, 2018; Tam and Chan, 2015; Uttal & Han, 2011). When the host culture holds distinct expectations for children, parents may choose to reframe their socialization practices to support their children’s successful adjustment to the majority group.…”

Asians in Aotearoa New Zealand: A population of interest for social work

“…It is a stress-inducing process requiring extensive adaptation, influenced by a number of factors at both the social and individual levels. Asians, regardless of their status of entry, have to adapt to new and often alien surroundings (Lee & Keown, 2018). Their ethnic minority status in society brings myriad acculturative stressors such as loss of cultural norms, language, religious customs and social support systems (Levitt et al, 2005), while their status as new arrivals results in a strong attachment to their own culture (Choi & Thomas, 2009).…”

“…For Asians, their ethnic minority status often confines their involvement in the host community, leading to their high levels of social isolation and economic marginalisation (Ho, 2015;Kim & Hocking, 2016;Lee & Keown, 2018). Such disruption potentially devalues their sense of self, as a person's sense of self emerges largely as a result of his/her everyday experiences (Wilcock & Hocking, 2015), and given that health is created by a person's daily experiences (WHO, 2001), increasing numbers of Asians are at a higher risk of diverse health problems-in particular mental health problems such as anxiety and depression (Kim et al, 2010).…”