Online qualitative research in immigrant communities: opportunities and challenges during the pandemic

Abstract

Internet-based qualitative methods have quickly transitioned from a niche to mass research strategy. The aim of the article is to describe the opportunities and challenges of online research, with a focus on in-depth interviews through video communication tools such as Zoom, Skype and Face Time. The analysis encompasses various dimensions of internet-based research: recruitment, conducting empirical study, analysis, and archiving. Online qualitative methods may be particularly useful in studying immigrant populations, due to a high level of internet skills among immigrants and their familiarity with online video communication resulting from their everyday transnational activities. Online research may translate into the increased visibility of low-cost projects, and broaden the academic autonomy of junior researchers, thus enhancing the diversification of empirical, theoretical, and methodological approaches. Conducting online interviews also improves the quality of archived material, due to the access to both sound and visual recording. The text emphasizes the advantages of the hybrid approach to qualitative research through combining online and offline interviews, and online and offline participant observation. The author refers to experiences of data collection for a study of Polish migrant entrepreneurs in the UK. Key words: internet-based interviews; online interviews; Zoom and Skype interviews; internet-based qualitative research; digitalization of qualitative research * The project was financed by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange within the Bekker programme, contract number PPN/BEK/2019/1/00200/U/00001.