Dual vision: Heritage, identity and notions of home amongst second-generation South Asian Muslims in the UK

British South Asian Muslims are a frequently maligned group, as is evidenced by post-Brexit violence, the rise of Islamophobia, far-right riots in the summer of 2024, and dominant discourses about the wearing of certain stigmatised garments. In post-imperial British society, this group is potentially vulnerable on three fronts: for being non-White, Muslim, and migrants (or members of migrant families). Given these circumstances, how do they experience life in Britain today and what is the impact on their sense of self, their goals, and their participation in society?
The concept of ‘home’ is a complex and often painfully elusive one for migrant families and creates a generational divide which is not experienced in non-migrant families. Buffeted by the forces of society’s majority and minority cultures, each succeeding generation reshapes and retunes their notions of ‘home’. This qualitative study used reflexive thematic analysis to examine the impact of displacement through migration on second-generation South Asian Muslims. In 46 life-story interviews, participants described their parents’ migration experiences, the impact of this on their own lives, their experiences growing up, living and working in Britain, and their sense of place and identity in the UK today. Whereas other studies focusing on this social group almost exclusively target adolescents or women in prescribed communities, participants in this study came from all over Britain, were aged between 20 and 57 (mean age of 35.3 years), with a female to male ratio of 73:27%. The parents of these participants originated in Pakistan (69%), India (18%) and Bangladesh (13%).
These narratives highlight how second-generation South Asian Muslims are searching for the security of ‘home’ and an authentic sense of self; the multiplication of displacement experiences echoes and reverberates through migrant families and impacts personal identity, relationships, education, career choices, language, religious observances and parenting. Participants described the barriers they face as well as the support and impetus they receive in the contexts of family, community and society at large. The search for ‘home’, as a place where they can ‘fit’ and be at ease in society and in themselves, was described by participants as a lifelong pursuit, a constant battleground intimately entangled in concepts of loss and regeneration, and a perpetual recalibration of outsider/insider identity. ‘Home’ is a challenging notion, but something to be endlessly sought by the children of migrants.