Accounting for differences: Dutch training nurses and their views on migrant women

Fifteen extended essays about working experiences with migrants, written by district nurses, were analyzed as part of a larger research project on the perception of child rearing practices in and family relations in migrant households. The nurses have all been working in child health centers and intended to improve their expertise in the position of migrant women and the background of child rearing practices in migrant households by means of a graduate project during their training as a district nurse or senior staff member. I was especially interested to learn how the huge amount of literature about the different cultural background of Turkish and Moroccan migrants was used by the nurses to elaborate ideas about the specific problems of migrant mothers and the possibilities of professional support in child rearing affairs. The analysis of the essays revealed that in most essays the concepts of 'ignorance', 'unequal gender relations' and 'isolation' are central in the construction of the category of Turkish and Moroccan mothers as a specific risk or problem group; and that 'cultural differences', 'transiency' and 'deficiency' play an important part in the nurses' 'explanatory model' of the risks and problems in these households. It is argued, that the meaning and interrelationship of the nurses' definitions and explanations of characteristics and problems in migrant households should be understood in the context of (1) the orientalist literature about the population of 'eastern' countries which is recommended in the professional trainings, (2) former and current perceptions of class differences in child rearing practices by professionals and (3) traditional ideas about the position and responsibilities of mothers which dominate in youth health care in the Netherlands. Supporting a minority standpoint in the essays a plea is made for the elaboration of the concept 'migrant culture' and the investigation of the (in)accessibility of Dutch facilities for migrant women.