Self-Determination for Young People in Norway with Minority Backgrounds and Developmental Disabilities - Having to Choose between the Family and the Welfare State?

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities obliges States to protect people with disabilities against discrimination from others and to take action to promote individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choices. In order to strengthen existing practices concerning persons with disabilities, the Norwegian government established an expert panel in 2016, which came up with eight recommendations. To strengthen the right to self-determination, one recommendation was that, “disabled people get adapted information about possibilities that are open to them and they should be assisted to clarify options available to them. (NOU 2016: 17, 184). Professionals can provide such adapted information, and so can family or friends. In our research, we interviewed immigrant families from Africa with children who have disability to explore their experiences of social participation in Norwegian society. In this paper, using the experience of one family, we report on the dilemma that this family faced in helping their teenage child with moderate disability to make a decision concerning an offer of accommodation given by the social services. The example is chosen because it illustrates and elaborates on issues related to sociocultural context, situated communication and self-determination. The family perceived the offer as conditional making it difficult for the teenager to exercise her right of self-determination as the perceived conditions put the family and the social services in conflict. To frame our discussion we use Hall (1976) on communication styles in high context versus low context culture. We discuss the implications communication style of social workers in a low context culture like Norway can have when they communicate with immigrants from high context culture like African immigrants. We however also point out how this kind of explanatory framework may fall short in terms of untangling misunderstandings between professionals and the people they are serving.