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Welcome to a migration seminar titled The complexity of parenthood in forced migration: Risks, commitments and dilemmas.

Speaker

Lejla Sunagic, PhD student, Lund University.

Abstract

Based on narrative inquiry, this study explores the experiences of Syrian parents who arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, reflecting on the risky journey they undertook to save their children's lives and secure their future. By comparing their reasoning along the narrative thread, the research examines how their perceptions of risk evolved and how the meaning of migration changed.
Initially, these parents perceived the risks of the sea journey as justified given their circumstances. They also made it ethically defensible, viewing the journey as a testament to virtuous parenthood. However, despite the fact that the worst-case scenarios did not materialize and they achieved the desired outcomes in their host countries, they later reassessed the same journey as an unacceptably high risk—thus, irrational.

Drawing on the notion of space sensitivity in risk perception, the study suggests that the parents' commitment to their children's future came at the cost of their sense of presence. The host countries, once geographically idealized through a parenthood-centered perspective, became spaces of disillusionment, leading to conflicting assessments of risk.

Attendance

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.
If you have any questions, send an email to mim@mau.se.

Zoom

Link will be available closer to the seminar date.

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