South Asian Families

The presentation of a brief and generalized account of the major features of family organization in South Asian settlements in Britain poses many problems. Although lifestyles within such groups may seem quite distinctive to outsiders, there is a great deal of internal differentiation. migrants have come from different parts of the sub-continent, and they and their children have adopted a range of strategic responses to their new social and economic environment. Yet despite these diversities, it is possible to identify a number of underlying structural continuities which run across the whole population category. The central aim of this chapter is to establish and illuminate the basic patterns and principles of family organization which are characteristic of virtually every community of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin in Britain