Who to marry? Norwegian-Tamil young adults reflecting on their conditions for partner choice. A narrative approach to intergenerational change processes

Abstract

Family and generational issues are central to research and debate on migration and culture. In this article we combine perspectives on partner choice and marriage with a narrative approach to intergenerational dynamics. More specifically we have invited young adult Norwegian-Tamils to gather in small groups with same gender peers and reflect on topics of partner choice and marriage. The data resulting from these discussions was contextualized by way of Cigdem Kagitcibasi’s theory of family change and analyzed based on Jerome Bruner’s perspectives on narrative and semiosis. Our results show how narrative analysis can capture and elucidate change processes that occur from one generation to the next. Narrative networks develop around contextualized “problems” and new generations interpret and reproduce both the context and the problems in new ways. Kagitcibasi argues that collectivist family patterns will prevail in the form of psychological interdependence when families migrate from traditional to Western socioeconomic contexts. The tendencies in our data both support and nuance this claim.