The project conducted focus group discussions in Canada, Estonia and Germany to investigate the intergenerational transmission of memories, historical views, and political attitudes among parents and their offspring. In each country, we brought the two generations together to discuss the late Cold War era, processes and figures in Soviet history, and present-day political landscapes, among other topics. We explore how family practices relate to intergenerational agreement on history and politics.

In line with the overall project design, the participants of focus group discussions are families with and without a Russian migratory background. Across the three countries, people with a Russian background encounter significant differences in how their host society relates to Russia. We are interested in studying how these specific settings in each country may account not only for an individual’s beliefs and values but also for their identity, homeland attachment, and sense of belonging to the country of residence.

Focus groups were conducted in three steps. We first had discussions separately with parents and offspring, each lasting approximately 2 hours. In follow-up discussions, we brought young adults and their parents together. We conducted 64 focus groups in total, with around 130 families across the three countries.

We implemented focus groups in cooperation with local companies specialising in qualitative data collection. In all three countries, we ensured a diverse sample of respondents. Focus groups took place online with the use of leading online platforms that offer unique interaction and discussion tools. The discussions were moderated by professional and experienced moderators in German, Estonian, English or Russian in accordance with the moderation guides developed by the MoveMeRU team.

Our current papers examine several related questions using focus group data. Reflecting on gaps in academic literature on immigration and democratic support, we study how families understand and evaluate democracy after migrating to democratic societies. For instance, we explore their political values and concerns they consider salient in their everyday lives (see how our participants think about democracy in decline here and here). We also investigate how families discuss and view political leadership in different countries, including their views of politicians in general and non-democratic leaders in particular. We focus on narratives, everyday reasoning, and interpretations that emerge across focus groups and generations. Taken together, this research engages with broader debates on transnational political socialisation, the role of family in migration contexts, and the long-term endurance of political legacies. 

Qualitative research is crucial for understanding the deeper dynamics in the process of intergenerational transmission. Moreover, focus group discussions provide a unique opportunity to capture the social embedding of values and opinion formation through interaction with other people and family members. Conducting both focus groups and surveys, the MoveMeRU project triangulates qualitative and quantitative data and methodologies to shed new light on attitudes and perceptions related to history, politics, and homeland attachment within families and in various national contexts.