Second Generation Problem Hitting Chechen Diaspora in Europe

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 11 – Children of the first wave of almost any immigrant community often think and behave fundamentally differently than do their parents, something that disturbs the latter; and that “second generation problem” is now hitting the enormous Chechen diaspora that has formed in Europe since the 1990s, its leaders say.

            Most members of the younger generation in the Chechen diaspora in Europe have adapted to the local culture and done well, but their values, attitudes, and actions often put them at odds with their parents who fear their children are losing their Chechen identity in the process (kavkazr.com/a/eto-ne-chechnya-zdesj-ne-prikazheshj-bezhentsy-traditsii-i-novoe-pokolenie/33151919.html).

            But there are also some within this generation who are becoming even more radical than their parents, often more obsessed with Islamic rules than with the traditional adat of Chechen society, and precisely their differences with their parents may come to define what Chechen émigré activism will look like in the coming decades.