Shaping Occupational Possibilities for Norwegian Immigrant Children: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Elementary school education is a key occupational arena for the integration of immigrant children. In this study conducted in Norway, questions about how best to support the education of immigrant children arose partly due to their poorer performance in primary school testing. A critical discourse analysis of the construction of the problem of the educational gap between Norwegian and immigrant children was conducted drawing on a sample of 20 newspaper articles published in 2012 about educational matters in Oslo. The analysis deconstructed how issues related to immigrant children's performance were problematized, with particular foci on how occupation was drawn into solution frames and the occupational possibilities promoted for immigrant children and their families. Three problematizations of the educational gap were identified, with each locating the problem in a different rationale, specifically, linguistic deficiency, parental deficiency and spatial segregation. Within each problematization, although contrasting political rationalities emphasized individual or social solutions, occupations forwarded as means to address the gap and promote integration were narrowly defined in ways that focused on assimilation into Norwegian ways of doing and de-valued difference. Concerns are raised regarding the implications of this narrow framing of occupational possibilities for identity, well-being, and occupational marginalization of immigrant children and families.