Broadening the positionality in migration studies: Assigned insider category

Abstract

This article contributes to the debates on positionality in migration studies by introducing assigned insider as a new category. I define it as a position when both the interviewees and the researcher are of the same local origin in which the researcher is considered ‘an insider of the host community’ and the interview questions are about a migrant group. I developed this category based on interviews with host community members during my field study in Bursa, Turkey, where I was born and raised. Previous studies focused on the researcher being an insider from a migrant community or being an outsider conducting research on a migrant community different from his/her own. Assigned insider has two elements that require it to be considered differently: same local origin operates as an overriding feature that goes beyond ethnicity and the interviewees being from the host community involves different ethical aspects than that from a migrant community. I argue that these reflect on the researcher during the interviews through active and passive discontent manifestations of the interviewees. While the former emphasises the direct confrontations of the interviewees that lead them to ‘correct’ the researcher, the latter manifests itself through non-verbal ways, which can result in refraining from answering questions.

Intergroup Encounters in Urban Public Spaces: Everyday Strategies of Host Community Members Following a Refugee Influx

“…I adopted snowball sampling through three different channels to obtain the maximum possible diversity among interviewees. Although many interviewees perceived me as an "insider," due to our shared traits, my education at a foreign institution also led them to categorize me as an "outsider" (Carling et al 2014;Fedyuk and Zentai 2018;Irgil 2021). Thus, my position as both insider and outsider simultaneously reinforced my rapport with interviewees, while causing them to perceive me with a level of skepticism, both of which, I presume, influenced the data collection process.…”

Pacific relationalities in a critical digital space: The Wellington southerlies as a leadership experience

“…Positionality foregrounds the positions of those who contribute to data. The concept of positionality can be understood in a number of ways, including through simple insider/outsider dichotomies (Merriam et al, 2001), multiple intersecting categories (Carling et al, 2014), and relationally (Crossa, 2012) Here, consistent with our overall focus, we take account of texts created through the relationships between writers as participants in the inception and conduct of the tok stori session, and as researchers. These texts speak of the relationships between intent and what can be learned from experience.…”

Research as care: Positionality and reflexivity in qualitative migration research

“…Ganga and Scott (2006), for example, reflect upon the influence that class and generation can have on qualitative migration research, claiming that the role of being ‘insiders’ is much more complex and multi-faceted than usually recognised. Reflecting on this complexity, Irgil (2021) introduces the category of ‘assigned insider’ referring to those researchers who share the same origins and sociocultural characteristics as the research participants. Moreover, Mason-Bish (2019) suggests that in qualitative research, issues of positionality and power relations between the researcher and the participants are related not only to their features but also to the subject matter of the research itself.…”