This is a group project examining the experiences of couples in mixed families in contemporary London. Five MA social work students are involved, each exploring a specific group of mixed families in which couples are from different races or different nationalities, ethnicities or faith groups. These groups of families include Christian-Muslim families, Black-British and South-Asian families, Zimbabwean inter-tribal families (the Ndebele and Shona); Black-British and Czech families and British-Portuguese families.
Whereas historically, research in this area tended to portray mixed families as potentially ‘problematic’ and leading to a variety of negative consequences for the parents and children, more current research challenges such perceptions and is able to highlight the strengths, coping mechanisms and a variety of advantages resulting from such families.
This project followed this more recent literature and explored the experiences of couples, the challenges they face as well as the ways in which these are overcome; the advantages and disadvantages of being part of a mixed family in contemporary London; the way families and couples make key decisions and how they negotiate their different cultural traditions, preferences and aspirations; how they pass these on to their children and what might be the positive and negative impact of these issues on family members’ wellbeing.
Publications