Wisdom From The Method Pub

RESPOND Conference Method Pub Attendees (17-19 October 2018, University of Cambridge)

by Susan Rottmann, Özyeğin University | Soner Önder Barthoma, Uppsala University

During our recent conference (17-19 October 2019, Cambridge), we organized the first ever "Method Pub" a social activity and joint discussion on the topic of "Research Methods for Migration Studies." Taking inspiration from the fact that Crick and Watson announced their discovery of the DNA double helix at a Cambridge pub, the event was held at a local pub on the second evening of the conference.  It was open to all conference attendees regardless of background and experience and involved four small group discussions on some of the most pressing methodological issues or challenges that migration researchers face. 

Prior to the event, we asked conference attendees to fill out an online form, indicating possible discussion topics they wished to have tackled by other migration researchers.  We received 4 questions:

1. Can the past inform the present? Can we extract lessons from History?

2. How to analyse highly normatively charged content which is often difficult to capture/measure by clearly reproducible criteria; how to 'de-emotionalise' migration research to a certain extent, so as to make it harder to objectively attack the research results

3. How to involve stakeholders, i.e. migrants, asylum seekers, or refugees, in the design, and not only in the implementation, of a research project? Which methodology should be better applied? Are there any best practices in this field?

4. "Researching the visual." How to develop a scientific analysis of visual material in ethnographic research?

Below are some of the insights that emerged through this innovative setting:

1.  Musings on the Role of History in Migration Studies

Why are people surprised by migration movements?

·       It seems like people forget history!  The Balkan route was always used. Yugoslavia was always a door to Europe.

·       Migrants sometimes know the migration history of places better than their “hosts.”

·       Even climate migration is not new.  The first climate migrants can be traced back to at least 1968.

·       Or is it really the case that people do not remember previous migrations?  Could it be that they actually know quite well about past migrations, but they pretend not to remember and politicians support their “amnesia.”  Sometimes the second late-coming immigrant generation is the most racist towards newcomers.  For example, Albanians are very racists towards Moroccans and Moroccans towards black Africans in Italy. 

Research imperatives

·       We need to understand complexity and historical patterns.  Of course, history is important—this is actually a trivial issue! 

·       Since 2015, many people began studying migration, and they think that they know it.  But they do not have any knowledge of the past, of colonialism or relevant geopolitical knowledge.  For instance, almost nothing is known about Italian colonialism. 

·       To use history as migration researchers, you need to work with interdisciplinary teams.  It is not necessary or possible for migration researchers to know history as well as historians.

·       PhD students should be required to take history courses.

·       Dawn Chatty is a model.

·       Knowledge of history can allow us to make small changes to avoid past mistakes. 

·       On the other hand:

o   History is not able to explain everything…for example, TRUMP!

o   History is also a tool that is used by the powerful.  For example, South African school books connected the country’s history with Europe, and this was taught to students as the one true history.  Other examples of similar uses of history are the way maps place the mapmaking country in the map’s center or how Poland’s history is told as the history of just one ethnic group.

 2.  Thoughts on the role of objectivity and emotion in migration research

·       Total objectivity is impossible, but evidenced based studies are still possible and valuable.

·       All facts need not be proven statistically.  Sometimes gossip or rumors are the best way to learn about smuggling or other important issues.

·       The question of impact and convincing host country policy makers about the value of your findings may mean that the appearance of objectivity is necessary. It is already difficult enough to make bridges between academics and policy makers.  On the other hand, people are moved by emotion, as in the image of a drowned migrant child, which received so much media attention. 

·       Researchers just starting out may be more emotional than more experienced researchers.  They may gain maturity over time, which brings down the level of emotion.

·       Starting from the selection of the research question, objectivity is not possible, but rather than worrying about researcher bias, we should embrace emotions.

3. Involving migrants/stakeholders in the research

·       It is important to involve refugees early in the research design process, by asking them to formulate the research questions, help with data gathering and if possible also with analysis and dissemination, through what is named PAR (Participatory Action Research).

·       Training the ‘trainers’ can be a method that can be applied in the research design if we want to involve the migrants more in the research and turn them into ‘public researchers’, but this will bring in the question of ethics and insurance issues.

·       This is a controversial question. A PhD. Candidate from anthropology mentioned that after her MSc. Dissertation her supervisor told her that she needs to share her findings with the respondents; however, when she shared, many times her respondents stated that there was a communication problem or they could not understand her findings and some of them did not like them at all.

·       In terms of involving migrants and stakeholders in research, formulation of their problems should be done as a part of current situation and stakeholder analysis should come from the project cycle management field. However, we are pessimistic about the possibilities. 

 4. Researching the visual – Visual anthropology

·       Broadly, two methods should be distinguished based on the researcher’s (external) intervention level: The first one introduces more intervention and an experimental method, such as asking refugees/refugee artists to draw something about their migration journey, or prepare metaphoric artistic work about ‘borders’. The second one has less intervention, deals with the material as ‘artefacts’ related to the topic, such as some images taken from the migration journey, some small belongings brought together from their country of origin (pictures/clothes or other meaningful/memory-full objects etc.)

·       When I was conducting an interview with one of our respondents regarding border experience, he started to draw since he was an artist. Thus, I asked a couple of questions and rather than talking he preferred to draw pictures. Thus, all of a sudden those paintings became the answers to analyses… 

 One participant, Ela Gokalp Aras, noted, “It was quite an innovative method, and the participants were provided a very good communication opportunity around methodology. Since we were coming from different disciplines, we shared our different experiences and knowledge about the questions.”