Context-Based Qualitative Research and Multi-sited Migration Studies in Europe

Abstract

Given the variety of types of migration, their overlapping nature, and their historical and geographical diversity, context is crucial when studying and researching migration. In the first part of this chapter, the essential character of migration as a space-time phenomenon is reflected in specifying a range of spatial and temporal contexts and categorisations. The second part of the chapter, the longest, explores the debate on multi-sited research design methods, focusing especially on multi-sited ethnography and its critiques. For migration projects, including doctoral studies, multi-sited research designs and mobile field methods enable researchers to ‘follow the people’ as well as other material transfers (such as remittances) and intangible flows (e.g. of discourses, metaphors and images relating to migration). The final section of the chapter illustrates the relevance of context and the suitability of multi-sited research designs with reference to some of the author’s research on Albanian migration.