Por Los Niños: Latine Caregivers’ Reflections on Parenting in the Context of Immigration

Immigrant families face unique challenges, most notably the active negotiation of two cultures not only at the individual level, but also in the context of family relationships. There is limited research exploring how immigrant caregivers of young children, in particular, experience this cultural negotiation in the context of parenting decisions and practices as these relate to their children’s development and schooling. The current study sought to understand immigrant parenting from a phenomenological, emic (“inside-out”) perspective and used grounded theory analysis of focus group data conducted with 74 Spanish-speaking caregivers of preschool-aged children. Results showed three main overarching focal themes: (1) impetus for immigration, (2) individual-level negotiations, and (3) parenting-level negotiations. These themes depicted immigrant parenting as both agentic and resilient in the face of limited financial resources, language barriers, cross-national and cultural differences, and family separation. Caregivers reframed their immigration experiences and overcame struggles por los niños.