Learning from Mixed Race Children in Foster Care

Abstract

The foster care experiences and problems of mixed race white and black African and Caribbean children were examined through their personal narratives to better understand the structural inequalities and racialization processes of Children’s Social Care. The continuing lack of social legitimacy afforded mixed families underpins decision-making practices in Children’s Social Care. In particular, the legitimate and important role of white mothering of mixed children is seen as inadequate in addressing their children’s cultural and ethnic needs. During foster placement planning, local authority guidelines place an emphasis on the child not ‘standing out as visibly different’ which conveys the assumption that families ought to look the same and homogeneity is the standard by which family is legitimated. The mixed classification in foster care matching fixes it as a static and unchanging identity, which relies on a deterministic and psychologizing tendency and negates the value of lived experience and cultural practice.