This study is based on 16 immigrant welfare-reliant women's discourses on motherhood in five focus groups. The women connect their mothering strategies for promoting discipline and their children's educational success with living on scarce finances: welfare dependence, children's education, and discipline are intertwined and recurrent themes that the interviews prompted. A dominant argument is that discipline diminishes the risk of school failure and deviant behaviour. Educational success is imperative for the children's chances to obtain employment and self-provision as adults; deviant behaviour must be stifled to avoid criminal activities, school failure, and future welfare dependence. The women argue that Swedish society obstructs their mothering through lax discipline in school, a disregard for parental authority, and restrictive welfare stipulations. They desire better support. This study widens our understandings of immigrant women's experiences of mothering on welfare, and informs political decision-makers and professionals in their work to develop supportive services for migrants. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

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immigrant Child Welfare welfare provision decision making employment Sweden womens status