As the global movement of people reaches unprecedented levels, Western governments are increasingly obsessed with border enforcement and migration management. This has resulted in the creation of complex and ever-changing immigration systems, contributing to the proliferation of new and complicated categories of migration status. Increasing numbers of migrants are finding themselves with precarious forms of immigration status and/or no status at all.
As the global movement of people reaches unprecedented levels, Western governments are increasingly obsessed with border enforcement and migration management. This has resulted in the creation of complex and ever-changing immigration systems, contributing to the proliferation of new and complicated categories of migration status. Increasing numbers of migrants are finding themselves with precarious forms of immigration status and/or no status at all.
This chapter is a reflection on the author's work in the context of trauma-focused qualitative research entitled “Risk and protective factors for the mental health consequences of childhood political trauma (Argentina 1976-1983) among adult Jewish Argentinian immigrants to Israel.” By examining the author's emotional reactions during the process of the data collection and analysis of her doctoral study, the author will explore the challenges that she faced, as well as the solutions she employed (both the effective and ineffective). More specifically, using the lens of the psychoanalytical term “countertransference”, she will discuss the manifestations of her positionality as a qualitative researcher and its impact on her engagement with her study. The author will elaborate on different strategies that she used for her study, and propose qualitative researchers to use “countertransference” as a way to understand and address the complexity of a researcher's positionality in narrative research.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.