| dc.description.abstract | This study aims to explore Greek and Greek–Norwegian children’s experiences of migration and bicultural childhood. The period of fieldwork took place in different cities in Norway during the autumn of 2014. The methods employed are questionnaires, worksheets, mind-mapping activities and semi-structured interviews. The participants in the study were children born in Norway with one Greek-born and one Norwegian-born parent, immigrant children from Greece who had been living in Norway between one and three years when the study was conducted, one Greek and one Greek-Norwegian youth, their parents and a Greek teacher.
Due to the growing multicultural society, I want to give attention to children’s experiences of growing up in-between cultures. The thesis is twofold, focusing on migration issues related to integration and adaption, such as climate changes, networking, cultural adaption, integration in school, and changing perceptions on children’s safety and independence. Further, the focus is on how the Greek culture is represented in the participants’ lives through the use of language, food habits, Greek celebrations and traditions, visits to Greece, contact with relatives, and contact with other people of Greek and Greek-Norwegian decent in Norway.
The study reveals that the experience of migration results in a change in children’s childhood, as they adapt to the new society. It also shows how bicultural childhood is experienced differently depending on the flexibility to adapt and how the different cultures are represented in children’s lives. These children do thus have different conditions for developing or sustaining their identity and belonging to Greece and Norway | nb_NO |
