Rising East Online

London Lives

Speaking of Home: Bangladeshi women in London’s East End reflect on belonging

—Nicola Samson

The aim of this study is to explore belonging through the experience of two Bangladeshi women in Tower Hamlets, East London. It is based on interviews with women of different generations who reflect on their belonging in terms of everyday aspects of their lives such as family, religion and education. The research is located within a theoretical background of the politics of belonging, globalisation, transnationalism and national identity, within the local context of East End studies, and within gender theory. The methodology uses qualitative narrative inquiry and a hermeneutic, interpretative approach to elicit meaning from the women’s subjective experiences. Analysis of the data illustrates the complexity and individuality of belonging and explores some of the generational differences. Reflexivity is considered a crucial element of the narrative process and attention is given to cultural barriers in the interviewee/interviewer relationship.

As the British born daughter of German Jewish refugees, I found being young in post-war London a somewhat confusing experience. Growing up with a continuous sense of never quite fitting in engendered a very real sense of not belonging. Later, having moved to Tower Hamlets as a young adult, it was traumatic when circumstances forced me to leave after twenty-two years. Only after long reflection did it become clear to me that it had been a fitting and comfortable place to be – as one of many people in an East End that for centuries has been the stopping place for immigrants. This question of belonging was intriguing. I began to wonder about other women who had come to Tower Hamlets, or those born there of immigrant parents. Where was home for them? Where did they feel they belonged?

My research therefore would be to interview Bangladeshi women about their sense of home and belonging. To get a perspective of how belonging might be perceived differently across age groups, I would interview two generations. What does home mean to them? Is it in the building in which they live, in their culture, in an East End community, in friendships, in transnational relationships with their country of origin, or in their religion? Might it be different for those women who migrated to London from those born and educated here?

The Question of Belonging

Questions of belonging and identity have been the subject of a number of different theoretical studies, exploring themes such as the politics of belonging, globalisation, transnationalism and national identity. These will be considered in a literature review, together with various important studies of Bangladeshis in Tower Hamlets, particularly in relation to questions of changing identity. Some studies look at the issues from a gendered perspective, with reference to the circumstances and role of women.

The very nature of belonging as an intensely personal, subjective aspect of the individual’s inner being, demands an approach that considers the whole person within their life story. Only through such a holistic perspective, placing the person within their social context in terms of time and place, can its authentic meaning be revealed. Thus an open, narrative approach will be used in interviewing, and hermeneutic, interpretive methodology applied in the analysis.

My work brings together the theoretical political and social ideas of identity and belonging, with the more personal methodology and practice of narrative research and life histories tradition. By locating issues of belonging in gendered terms, the research will explore them specifically in respect of women’s own stories. To my knowledge this is an approach that has not been undertaken before with Bangladeshi women in the East End.

Read more: Speaking of home: Bangladeshi women in London’s East End reflect on belonging

Nicola Samson was a ‘very mature’ student at UEL until she graduated this summer.

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