Raising a child is a challenging venture, regardless of where one lives in the world. Most children are raised in their families; however, many states have welfare services if the child’s well-being is at stake. Scandinavian countries follow a rather strict policy in placing the child’s individual rights above those of the family, and Norway has child welfare legislation that applies to all children in the country, regardless of their status, nationality or citizenship. This institutional structure has raised issues about how family life is negotiated in society. In this article, we analyze the ways in which language and culture are used to address expectations of (good) normal family life in both private and public discourses with implications for transnational families. We thus problematize the notion of the family as a private domain or space. Furthermore, by examining institutional involvement in child-rearing, we extend research on family language policy to contexts of foster care. We thereby raise the discussion to a societal level about private and public expectations towards family life in a late-modern society.

中文翻译：

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公共与私人之间的话语：十字路口的跨国家庭

抚养孩子是一项具有挑战性的冒险，无论一个人生活在世界的哪个角落。大多数孩子都是在他们的家庭中长大的；但是，如果儿童的福祉受到威胁，许多州都会提供福利服务。斯堪的纳维亚国家遵循相当严格的政策，将儿童的个人权利置于家庭权利之上，挪威制定了适用于该国所有儿童的儿童福利立法，无论其身份、国籍或公民身份如何。这种制度结构引发了关于家庭生活在社会中如何协商的问题。在本文中，我们分析了在私人和公共话语中使用语言和文化来表达对（良好）正常家庭生活的期望以及对跨国家庭产生影响的方式。因此，我们质疑家庭作为私人领域或空间的概念。此外，通过研究机构参与育儿，我们将对家庭语言政策的研究扩展到寄养环境。因此，我们将讨论提升到社会层面，即私人和公众对晚期现代社会家庭生活的期望。