Intergenerational Relations in Immigrant Families

Abstract

The tale of the conflict between immigrant parents steeped in old-country traditions and values and their children who have grown up in the American social and cultural world is an old one. It is often presented as an intrinsic—and natural—part of the American immigrant saga. It forms the basis for many novels and memoirs about contemporary immigration, typically from the point of view of the aggrieved children. The inevitability of intergenerational conflict is also an assumption in much academic writing about immigrant family life.