Navigating Histories: An Exploration of Second Generation High-Achieving British Bangladeshi Muslim Young Women Living in North-East London

Abstract

This thesis examines the lives of second generation high-achieving British Bangladeshi Muslim young women living in various parts of north-east London (within the M25). My respondents are educated to at least degree level and are in, or aspire to, middle class employment. This research explores their relationships with their families, and in particular their first generation parents. It also looks at school friendships, romantic relationships, issues of travel to Bangladesh and, finally, how religion shapes both the respondents’ sense of self and the ways in which they orient themselves in relation to their nuclear family. My respondents’ accounts are explored through in-depth narrative analysis in the empirical chapters. This research draws from literature examining migrational and postcolonial understandings of psychoanalysis, Bangladeshi communities, relationships between first generation migrant parents and their second generation daughters and intergenerational dialogue. It is qualitative in nature, employing grounded theoretical and ethnographic research methodologies. The data upon which the research is empirically based is drawn from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twenty young women, which were carried out between 2006 and 2012. This study’s findings suggest that these young women are able to speak from various historical positionalities. By navigating through and between different cultural histories, this thesis argues, such young women have become or are in the process of becoming ‘hybrid’ in their complex and multi-layered identities. This research has the potential to contribute to the study of intergenerational ethnicities and diasporic identities, as well as enriching our understanding of how a sense of self is formed when respondents belong to a number of differing cultures.