Insights from a qualitative study of second-generation young Tamils growing up in Germany

The aim of the study is to examine identity construal processes of young Tamils growing up in Germany. Their parents moved to Germany in the 80s fleeing conflict in Sri Lanka. Building on the theoretical framework on biculturalism developed by Yampolsky et al. (2013) we explored, using a qualitative approach, to what extent second-generation Tamils see themselves as a product of two cultures.
Semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten participants (5 men and 5 women). All participants were born in Germany and completed schooling in Germany. All participants also attended Tamil schools and speak the Tamil language. Traditional Tamil values include making parents proud (collectivistic orientation), a conservative understanding of gender roles and emphasizing duty over joy. This is quite different to predominant values in Germany which is why we wanted to explore, how second-generation Tamils organize their cultural identities and what compromises they make in order to live up to cultural influences and expectations, focusing on the negotiation processes our participants engage in in navigating their cultural influences. The majority of our participants feel committed to both cultural influences and identify with both. We will show the different ways of compromise our participants have adopted.