Qualitative Research in European Migration Studies

306 Pages·2018·4.916 MB·English

by  Ricard Zapata-Barrero, Evren Yalaz

IMISCOE Research Series
Ricard Zapata-Barrero · Evren Yalaz
Editors
Qualitative
Research in
European
Migration
Studies
IMISCOE Research Series
This series is the official book series of IMISCOE, the largest network of excellence
on migration and diversity in the world. It comprises publications which present
empirical and theoretical research on different aspects of international migration.
The authors are all specialists, and the publications a rich source of information for
researchers and others involved in international migration studies.
The series is published under the editorial supervision of the IMISCOE Editorial
Committee which includes leading scholars from all over Europe. The series, which
contains more than eighty titles already, is internationally peer reviewed which
ensures that the book published in this series continue to present excellent academic
standards and scholarly quality. Most of the books are available open access.
For information on how to submit a book proposal, please visit: http://www.
imiscoe.org/publications/how-to-submit-a-book-proposal.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13502
Ricard Zapata-Barrero • Evren Yalaz
Editors
Qualitative Research
in European Migration
Studies
Editors
Ricard Zapata-Barrero Evren Yalaz
Political and Social Sciences Department Political and Social Sciences Department
University of Pompeu Fabra – GRITIM-UPF University of Pompeu Fabra – GRITIM-UPF
Barcelona-Catalonia, Spain Barcelona-Catalonia, Spain
ISSN 2364-4087 ISSN 2364-4095 (electronic)
IMISCOE Research Series
ISBN 978-3-319-76860-1 ISBN 978-3-319-76861-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76861-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018940004
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018. This book is published open access.
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Acknowledgments
This edited volume would not have been possible without the generous help and
support of many people and institutions. We are thankful to the authors who have
agreed to join us in this journey and contributed to this book with their hard work
and diligence over the course of the project. We would like to express our gratitude
to the members of the IMISCOE Editorial Committee for relying on our project and
helping us better focus the book through their initial comments. We are also thank-
ful to the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra
for providing us some budget to stimulate this research. The first drafts of the chap-
ters in this book were presented at research in progress sessions at GRITIM-
UPF. We had the chance to discuss the book project at various panels in IMISCOE
general conferences in Prague (June 2016) and Rotterdam (June 2017). A part of
this book is generously funded by the Obra Social “La Caixa.” We are particularly
thankful to certain individuals: John Solomos, Rinus Penninx, Avi Astor, Zenia
Hellgren, and Juan Carlos Triviño who have provided invaluable comments on the
various parts of this book. Luisa Faustini Torres and Begum Dereli have assisted us
with the data collection for Chapter 2. Juliana Fornasier’s editorial assistance has
been crucial for making the book ready for publication.
v
Contents
1 Introduction: Preparing the Way for Qualitative Research
in Migration Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Ricard Zapata-Barrero and Evren Yalaz
2 Mapping the Qualitative Migration Research in Europe:
An Exploratory Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Evren Yalaz and Ricard Zapata-Barrero
Part I Theoretical and Epistemological Issues
3 Context-Based Qualitative Research and Multi-sited
Migration Studies in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Russell King
4 Moving Out of the Comfort Zone: Promises and Pitfalls
of Interdisciplinary Migration Research in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Maren Borkert
5 Applied Political Theory and Qualitative Research
in Migration Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Ricard Zapata-Barrero
6 Epistemological Issues in Qualitative Migration
Research: Self-Reflexivity, Objectivity and Subjectivity . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Theodoros Iosifides
Part II Building a Qualitative Research Design
7 Qualitative Migration Research: Viable Goals,
Open-Ended Questions, and Multidimensional Answers . . . . . . . . . . 113
Ewa Morawska
vii
viii Contents
8 Categorising What We Study and What We Analyse,
and the Exercise of Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Dirk Jacobs
9 Where, What and Whom to Study? Principles, Guidelines
and Empirical Examples of Case Selection
and Sampling in Migration Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Karolina Barglowski
Part III Qualitative Techniques and Data Analysis
10 The Interview in Migration Studies: A Step towards
a Dialogue and Knowledge Co-production? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Olena Fedyuk and Violetta Zentai
11 Focus Groups in Migration Research: A Forum
for “Public Thinking”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Annalisa Frisina
12 Participant Observation in Migration Studies:
An Overview and Some Emerging Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Paolo Boccagni and Mieke Schrooten
13 Discourse and Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Teun A. van Dijk
14 Doing Digital Migration Studies: Methodological
Considerations for an Emerging Research Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Koen Leurs and Madhuri Prabhakar
Part IV Significant Requirements Before Embarking
15 Methodological and Ethical Dilemmas in Research
Among Smuggled Migrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Ilse van Liempt and Veronika Bilger
16 Research-Policy Relations and Migration Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Peter Scholten
About the Editors and Contributors
Editors
Ricard Zapata-Barrero Full Professor at the Department of Political and Social

Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain). Director of
GRITIM-UPF (Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration) and of the
Master’s Degree in Migration Studies. His main lines of research deal with contem-
porary issues of liberal democracy in contexts of diversity, especially the relation-
ship between democracy, citizenship, and immigration. In particular, his research
falls within two main fields: Borders/Human Mobility Studies and Diversity/
Citizenship studies. He promotes interdisciplinary knowledge on immigration,
combines theory and case studies, policy and socially oriented research, and follows
contextual, conceptual, and interpretive approaches. He is a member of the Board of
Directors of IMISCOE, the largest research network on immigration in Europe. He
co-coordinates two Standing Groups according to its lines of research related to cit-
ies and multi-level governance, and diversity and cultural policy. He has recently
launched a Research Cluster on Conceptual and Qualitative Research (coord. with
E. Yalaz). He is a member of several European projects. His main geographic area
of research is the Mediterranean. He is editorial advisory member of several jour-
nals and research institutes, and occasional contributor to media and policy debates.
Contact: [email protected]
Homepage: http://dcpis.upf.edu/~ricard-zapata/
Evren  Yalaz Senior researcher at GRITIM-UPF (Interdisciplinary Research

Group on Immigration at University of Pompeu Fabra). She received her Ph.D. from
the Department of Political Science at Rutgers University in 2014. Her research
interests engage with questions about the politics of racial, ethnic, and immigrant-
origin minorities; migrant transnationalism; migrants’ community organizations;
and comparative policies of citizenship, migration, and integration. Her dissertation
examined sources of variations in degrees and trajectories of immigrant political
ix
x About the Editors and Contributors
incorporation by focusing on Turkish immigrants and their organizations in
Germany and France. She co-coordinates (with R. Zapata-Barrero) IMISCOE
Research Cluster on Conceptual and Qualitative Research.
Contact: [email protected]
Homepage: https://evrenyalaz.academia.edu/
Contributors
Karolina Barglowski Junior Professor of the Sociology of Migration at the

Institute of Sociology at Technical University Dortmund (Germany). Previously,
she worked at Bielefeld University, where she obtained her Ph.D. in 2016, University
of Duisburg-Essen, and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and
Ethnic Diversity. Her research and teaching focuses on social inequalities, European
migration, qualitative methods, and cultural sociology. Her recent publications
address issues of intersectionality in transnational spaces, “Coming out within
transnational families: intimate confessions under western eyes” in Social Identities
(2017) (with Anna Amelina and Basak Bilecen), of European mobility regimes
“Migration pressures and opportunities: challenges to belonging within the
European Union’s mobility regime” (2016) in InterDisciplines. Journal of History
and Sociology, and of transnational methodology “Approaching Transnational
Social Protection: Methodological Challenges and Empirical Applications” in
Population, Space and Place (2015) (with Basak Bilecen and Anna Amelina).
Contact: [email protected]
Homepage: http://www.fk12.tu-dortmund.de/cms/ISO/de/Lehr-und-Forschung
sbereiche/Migrationssoziologie/index.html
Veronika Bilger Senior researcher and Head of the Research at the International

Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). She has coordinated and
worked in numerous comparative research projects in the area of migration and
migration policy. She has authored/coauthored studies and publications on issues
related to migration statistics, family migration, irregular migration, human traffick-
ing, and methodological and ethical aspects of research involving vulnerable
migrants. From 2005 to 2012, she has also lectured International Development at
the University of Vienna and has provided numerous trainings on qualitative
research methodology and ethics, biographical work, and aspects of vulnerability
not only in academia but also to law enforcement, social workers, psychologist, and
other professional groups. She is a member of the European IMISCOE Network and
editorial board member of the Vienna Journal of African Studies.
Contact: [email protected]
Homepage: http://research.icmpd.org
Paolo Boccagni Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Trento and

PI of the ERC StG project HOMInG – the Migration-Home Nexus (2016–2021). He