Abstract
The chapter presents the second-generation migrant women’s shifting perspectives about intergenerational relationships. In particular, Mallman focuses on how empathy is the binding agent in a relationship and how the recognition of past experiences paves the way towards relational connectedness. It explores the women’s reconceptualisation of their relationship with their parents through two elucidations. The first is their realisation of the economic, social, cultural, historical, and political context of their parents’ decisions to emigrate. Second, their recognition of certain life events, and circumstances in their own lives, influenced their understanding of their parents’ struggles. As a result, they were able to disentangle cultural heritage from negative family dynamics and ideology. They developed nuanced views of their cultural heritage, self-reflexively deciding which aspects they wanted to identify with. Through a better understanding of their parents’ culture and experiences of migration, their earlier rejection narrative was replaced with a narrative of embrace.
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Mallman, S. (2019). Changing Perspectives. In: Family, Story, and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1915-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1915-0_5
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1914-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1915-0
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