Experiments and Interventions: Re-envisioning Qualitative Research Methods in Migration

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter on methodology is manifold. It begins by telling the story of the StOries Project, a migration-centred teaching-training initiative that started in 2021 at CERC, in Migration at Toronto Metropolitan University. Using narrative enquiry to delve into the lived experience of migration, employing creative writing formats, was one of its core objectives. Our intention was also to explore the potential of the above conceptual paradigm and methodological process to learn more, and also ‘differently,’ about the migration experience. As the stories- written mostly in a personal and creative non-fiction style- and the academic chapters in this hybrid collection demonstrate, if such experimental projects in migration garner interest from students, early-stage researchers and academics searching for new areas and methods of exploration in this field, pioneering work in cross disciplinary fields could be brought in conversation with each other; and insights from such contributions would help bring new ways of seeing and thinking to migration studies, helping both academic and mainstream readers to ‘know’ about the migration journey more from the perspective of individuals who have experienced it.