Open Access Peer-reviewed Research Article

Turning into a "Godparent": How adult volunteers negotiate their personal life to become a mentor for "Unaccompanied Refugee Minor"

Article Sidebar

Download PDF
Submitted   Apr 30, 2019
Published   Jun 10, 2019
Issue    Vol 1 No 1 (2019)
DOI   10.25082/SWSW.2019.01.003

Views

2473

Downloads

1375

Citations

PlumX Metrics

Main Article Content

Eberhard Raithelhuber corresponding author
Department of Educational Science, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

Abstract

This article looks into how mentors deal with their biographies and social embeddedness to make sense of their engagement in mentoring before they are matched. It draws on a qualitative investigation carried out during a pilot youth mentoring program for “unaccompanied refugee minors” in Austria. This article reveals how already trained, local adult volunteers actively relate to “family,” “migration” and “previous activities” in their meaning-making. It shows how they negotiate their personal life and existing relationships in the process of turning into a future “godparent.” The discussion of findings against the state of the art leads the way to two heuristic claims: firstly, the study provides grounded arguments for an extension of the conventional mentoring concept on the side of the mentor. Secondly, for a more relational and processual approach towards the mentors’ side, both biographical and social network dimensions need to be integrated in methods and designs of youth mentoring research.

Keywords
youth mentoring programs, voluntary mentors, unaccompanied refugee minors, personal life, social networks, biography, mentoring as a concept

Article Details

How to Cite
Raithelhuber, E. (2019). Turning into a "Godparent": How adult volunteers negotiate their personal life to become a mentor for "Unaccompanied Refugee Minor". Social Work and Social Welfare, 1(1), 23-36. https://doi.org/10.25082/SWSW.2019.01.003
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

References

  1. DuBois DL. Handbook of youth mentoring, Karcher MJ (eds.), 2nd edn, SAGE, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412996907
  2. Allen TD. Mentoring relationships from the perspective of the mentor, in DL Dubois, MJ Karcher (eds.), The handbook of mentoring at work: Theory, research, and practice, SAGE, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2007: 123-147. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412976619.n5
  3. Suffrin RL, Todd NR and S´anchez B. An ecological perspective of mentor satisfaction with their youth mentoring relationships. Journal of Community Psychology, 2016, 44(5): 553-568. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21785
  4. Colley H. Mentoring for social inclusion: A critical approach to nurturing mentor relationships. Routledge Falmer, London, New York, NY, 2003.
  5. Lakind D, Atkins M and Eddy JM. Youth mentoring relationships in context: Mentor perceptions of youth, environment, and the mentor role. Children and Youth Services Review, 2015, 53: 52-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.03.007
  6. Larsson M, Pettersson C, Eriksson C, et al. Initial motives and organizational context enabling female mentors’ engagement in formal mentoring A qualitative study from the mentors’ perspective. Children and Youth Services Review, 2016, 71: 17-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.10.026
  7. Philip K, Shucksmith J and King C. Sharing a laugh? A qualitative study of mentoring interventions with young people. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, 2004.
  8. Pryce JM, Giovannetti S, Spencer R, et al. Mentoring in the social context: Mentors’ experiences with mentees’ peers in a site-based program. Children and Youth Services Review, 2015, 56: 185-192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.06.015
  9. Weiler LM, Zarich KJ, Haddock SA, et al. A comprehensive model of mentor experiences: perceptions, strategies, and outcomes. Journal of Community Psychology, 2014, 42(5): 593-608. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21640
  10. Hess S. Der lange Sommer der Migration: Grenzregime III. Kasparek B, Kron S, et al. (eds.) Assoziation A, Berlin, Hamburg, 2017.
  11. Raithelhuber E. How “godparents” are made for “unaccompanied refugee minors”: an ethnographic view into the training of future youth mentors. Child & Youth Services, 2018, 39(4): 250-283. https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2018.1498330
  12. Raithelhuber E. Rearranging differential inclusion through civic solidarity. Loose coupling in mentorship for ‘unaccompanied minors’. Social Inclusion, 2019, 7(2): e1969. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v7i2.1969
  13. Keller TE. A systemic model of the youth mentoring intervention. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 2005, 26: 169- 188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-005-1850-2
  14. Higgins MC and Kram KE. Reconceptualizing Mentoring at Work: A Developmental Network Perspective. Academy of Management Review, 2001, 26: 264-288. http://www.jstor.org/stable/259122
  15. Dobrow SR, Chandler DE, Murphy WM, et al. A Review of Developmental Networks: Incorporating a Mutuality Perspective. Journal of Management, 2012, 38: 210-242. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311415858
  16. Keller TE, Overton B, Pryce JM, et al. “I really wanted her to have a Big Sister”: Caregiver perspectives on mentoring for early adolescent girls. Children and Youth Services Review, 2018, 88: 308-315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.03.029
  17. Dutton H, Deane KL and Bullen P. Distal and experiential perspectives of relationship quality from mentors, mentees, and program staff in a school-based youth mentoring program. Children and Youth Services Review, 2018, 85: 53- 62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.12.008
  18. Basualdo-Delmonico AM and Spencer R. A parent’s place: Parents’, mentors’ and program staff members’ expectations for and experiences of parental involvement in communitybased youth mentoring relationships. Children and Youth Services Review, 2016, 61: 6-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.11.021
  19. Morrow KV and Styles MB. Building relationships with youth in program settings: A study of big brothers /big sisters. Public/Private Ventures, Philadelphia, PS, 1995.
  20. Taylor AS and Porcellini L. Family involvement, in DL DuBois, MJ Karcher (eds.), Handbook of Youth Mentoring, 2nd edn., SAGE, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2014: 457-468.
  21. Keller TE and Blakeslee JE. Social Networks and Mentoring, in DL DuBois, MJ Karcher (eds.), Handbook of Youth Mentoring, 2nd edn, SAGE, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2014: 129-142. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412996907.n31
  22. Janssen S, van Vuuren M and Jong MDT de. Motives to mentor: Self-focused, protg-focused, relationship-focused, organization-focused, and unfocused motives. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2014, 85: 266-275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.002
  23. Smart C. Personal life: New directions in sociological thinking. Polity Press, Cambridge, 2007.
  24. May V (ed.), Sociology of Personal Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 2011.
  25. Raithelhuber E, Trott L and Piemontese S. “Substantial social participation” for young people on the move: Welfare institutions and the personal life of marginalized youth in transition. In Kommission Sozialp¨adagogik (Ed.), Teilhabe dur chintrotz Sozialp¨adagogik, Beltz Juventa, Weinheim, Mnchen, 2019: 146-158.
  26. Ghosh R. Antecedents of mentoring support: a metaanalysis of individual, relational, and structural or organizational factors. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2014, 84: 367-384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.02.009
  27. Wang S, Noe RA, Wang ZM, et al. What affects willingness to mentor in the future? An investigation of attachment styles and mentoring experiences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2009, 74: 245-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.12.2
  28. Denzin NK. The SAGE handbook of qualitative research, Lincoln YS (eds.), 5th edn, SAGE, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2018.
  29. Karcher MJ and Hansen K. Mentoring Activities and Interactions, in DL DuBois, MJ Karcher (eds.), Handbook of Youth Mentoring, 2nd edn, SAGE, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2014: 63-82. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412996907.n5
  30. Chun JU, Sosik JJ and Yun NY. A longitudinal study of mentor and prot´eg´e outcomes in formal mentoring relationships. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2012, 33: 1071- 1094. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1781
  31. Mezzadra S and Neilson B. Borderscapes of differential inclusion: subjectivity and struggles on the threshold of justice’s excess, in E Balibar, S Mezzadra, R. Samaddar (eds.) Politics, history, and social change. The borders of justice, Te mple Univ. Press, Philadelphia, PS, 2012: 181-203.
  32. Gubrium J and Holstein J. Analyzing Narrative Reality, SAGE, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2009. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452234854
  33. Elrick J and Schwartzman LF. From statistical category to social category: organized politics and official categorizations of ‘persons with a migration background’ in Germany. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2015, 38: 1539-1556. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2014.996240
  34. Herz A, Peters L and Truschkat I. How to do qualitative structural analysis: The qualitative interpretation of network maps and narrative interviews, Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 2014, 16(1): 9. http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-16.1.2092
  35. Schatzki TR. The practice turn in contemporary theory. Knorr-Cetina K, Savigny E (eds.) Routledge, New York, NY, 2001.
  36. Cuconato M and Walther A. ‘Doing transitions’ in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2015, 28: 283-296. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2014.987851
  37. Dausien B and Kelle H. Biographie und kulturelle Praxis. Methodologische U¨ berlegungen zur Verknu¨pfung von Ethnographie und Biographieforschung, in B VO¨ lter, B Dausien, H Lutz, et al. (eds.), Biographieforschung im Diskurs, VS Verlag, Wie sbaden, 2005: 189-212. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-09432-6 10