could also be the root of dissimilarities in contacting habits. Therefore, I wanted to have both male and female participants. Although sampling for the range was the most efficient for the goals of the research, my sample suffered from problems of representativeness and bias (Small, 2009). Moreover, all the students I interviewed were postgraduates, which potentially leads to sample bias, creating a limitation of the research.

My position as an insider in the researched topic enabled me to easily access participants. I used my social networks to recruit potential interviewees. I asked university peers, either online or personally, whether they would like to take part in my research. Haraway (1988) argues that no objective knowledge production exists, therefore to decrease subjectivity paid specific attention not to involve close friends in the study. I was afraid that my background information about the interviewees and their families would influence the interview – by asking or not asking about particular issues – and the research outcome. Accordingly, the ideal participants were those, whose families I have never heard about previously. When contacting the potential interviewees, I briefly introduced the project and made candidates feel comfortable about not participating if they would not like to for any reasons. Luckily, all the four peers I contacted were happy to take part in the research.

With regards to some socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, I interviewed two males and two females from very different parts of the world: The United States, Germany, China and Italy. Their parents still live in the country of their origin. All of them are from traditional families, one of them is an only child, while the other three interviewees have one sibling each. They all have been living in London since late summer/early autumn 2018, and all of them are studying at the postgraduate level.

Luker’s (2008) suggestions on constructing interview guides, to which I am referring through this paragraph, immensely helped my work. Firstly, I phrased questions in a simple way that could be easily understood. Further pursuing naturality, I avoided the use of jargon as much as possible. For instance, instead of using the expression nuclear family I asked about those family members whom they grew up with. Developing the guide, I started with the outlining of the main topics which would come up during the interview, i.e. general introduction, family relationships and family contacting habits. Logical ordering of these topics in the interview was crucial because it established