Educational patterns among bi-national children

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to cast light on children‟s upbringing and education in families of mixed EU nationality living in Lisbon. After a brief introduction, I will dedicate the first two parts to the theoretical contextualization of European mixed couples as a new family arrangement born of EU social integration; as to entail, thereafter, an attentive reflection on issues related to transnational children‟s upbringing. Qualitative evidence from 24 in-depth interviews with three different groups of couples (Portuguese women married to European men; Portuguese men married to European women; married non-Portuguese European couples of different nationalities) will be then presented and discussed. According to the original findings, when certain variables – children‟s language capabilities (one, two or more languages), type of school (national/international, state/private), and social networks (national/mixed/international) – are taken into account, three types of educational strategies emerge: a family assimilation strategy, a bi-national family strategy and a peripatetic family strategy. In the final part, a critical appreciation will be carried out of the role that these family strategies have in the theorizing and research on migration and minority child-raising, not only within an EU socio-political context but also in a wider global environment involving cultural heterogeneity.