Reflections on researching transnational migrants and the fieldwork challenges of studying co-nationals abroad

Resumo

This article offers reflections on the process of researching
transnational migration, and particularly the fieldwork
challenges and difficulties that can emerge when studying
co-nationals abroad. Based on two distinct research projects
on transnational migration (one on Brazilians in London
and the other on Britons in Beijing), which used similar
methodological tools and faced similar challenges, we argue
thatcombining a mobile ethnographic methodological
tool (documenting journeys) with in-depth biographical
interviews and historical and contextual analyses, makes our
data open to analyse migration as a translocal process at the
same time that provides a connection between both macro
and micro scales of analysis. Our methodological tools allowed
us to understand how people speak of, engage with and
negotiate mobile experiences in their everyday lives, in the
macro political and social structures organising immigration
and emigration.We conclude by reflecting on the challenges
of researching co-nationals abroad,our own positionality
in relation to our fieldwork and the multi-layered power
relations involved in our respective research process.