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Paper Short Abstract:

In Berlin, Germany, Cameroonian immigrant women undo the disempowerment they face by asserting their parenting expertise vis-à-vis official social actors (e.g., teachers, social workers) and gaining expert reputations status by advising more recent arrivals in their immigrant community.

Paper Abstract:

When they migrate to Europe, mobile West African women face disempowerment and status loss vis-à-vis social actors and institutions in their destination societies. In their roles as parents, they experience teachers’, social workers’, pediatricians’, and other official actors’ mistrust and assumptions of “neglect” or “harmful” practices. Often based on misunderstandings, these negative encounters can have serious consequences for the mother’s dignity, the children’s developing sense of self, and even for parental custody. Some mobile West African women successfully undo their disempowerment by asserting their parenting expertise toward official social actors. They gain further status within immigrant communities by advising their fellow migrants about good parenting practices as well as strategies for interacting with official, credentialized parenting “experts” within the destination-society.

This contribution addresses the changing and contested nature of parenting expertise in Cameroonian Berlin. It explores how different groups of social actors construct sometimes contrasting, sometimes overlapping notions of “good” parenting, and how they contest who counts as a parenting expert. It reveals transformations over time—in the content and sources of parenting advice, its modes of transmission, and its audiences—as the Cameroonian diasporic community has grown and become more heterogeneous. Finally, the contribution proposes that Cameroonian immigrant women who develop a reputation for mothering expertise gain status in other realms of African immigrant community life, and undergo self-realization that is crucial in their search for dignity in an otherwise disrespecting environment.