Interviewing mothers and daughters: reflecting on the role of the ‘insider’

Having arrived in the UK as a five-year-old immigrant child, and vividly remembering those early days when everything for me was very different and alienating, formed one of the inspirations for my study on the influence of immigration on families. The influence of my mother, the person central to my care and upbringing, was the core reason for my study on immigrant South Asian families and the way that mother and daughter roles evolve. Mothers are often key role models, as well as being a critical source of support and reassurance, for their children.
The vastly differing experiences of my mother, an eighty-four-year-old first-generation immigrant, compared to my third-generation nineteen-year-old daughter, as well as my own intermediary position as both second-generation mother, and daughter, led me to reflect on how the categories and expectations of immigrant South Asian motherhood and daughterhood have shifted over this tripartite generational evolution. My research question attempts to explore the changes in the experiences and lives of mothers and daughters from South Asia over three generations.
I have conducted the first set of interviews for my study. I will discuss reflections from these interviews, specifically examining my role as an ‘insider’. This reflection has allowed me to identify the benefits of an insider role in qualitative research interviews and how the lived experience of an insider can be a useful method for oral history interviews.