The Role of Intimate Relationship Status, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Doing Fieldwork among Sexual–Racial Minority Refugees: An Intersectional Methodology*

Abstract

Feminist researchers from a range of disciplines have called for consolidation of intersectionality as a methodology. In this article, I contribute to the literature on intracategorical intersectional methodology by drawing on my experiences of conducting fieldwork with 19 gay male Iranian refugees in Canada. Also, by merging the research on intersectionality, sexuality, and refugee studies, I take intersectionality beyond its traditional application on the lives of women of color. I particularly focus on relations between intimate relationship status and insider status, sexuality and internal gatekeepers, and ethnicity and obtaining signed consent forms. Assuming that ethnographers, albeit marginally, participate in or become part of their participant group during fieldwork, I demonstrated the utility of intracategorical intersectional methodology for a systematic examination of power dynamics and the interactions between participants' and researchers' markers of identity. I argue that intracategorical intersectionality challenges static definitions of insiderness in qualitative research and provides researchers with nuanced and non-hegemonic analyses of research process.

The Intersectional Integration: Examining The Integration Experiences Of Middle Eastern LGBTQ+ Refugees In Canada and Service Providers Response

“…Such workshops provided in the native language of LGBTQ+ refugees by facilitators who also have the knowledge and familiarity with their intersectional background can largely improve the integration of LGBTQ+ refugees. While Karimi's (2018Karimi's ( , 2019aKarimi's ( , 2019bKarimi's ( , 2020 work mainly focused on gay Iranian refugees, which does not constitute for the larger group of ME-LGBTQ+ refugees, his findings can largely apply in their context and reveal similar implications and impacts of their intersectional identities on their integration experiences.…”

“…The literature about the integration of ME-LGBTQ+ refugees is particularly scarce. Karimi's (2018Karimi's ( , 2019aKarimi's ( , 2019b) work on the integration experiences of gay Iranian refugees stands as the most prominent work relevant to ME-LGBTQ+ refugees. Due to the unique intersections of a wide range of factors, an intersectional approach has been repeatedly applied to examine the entanglement of sexuality and gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, and religion with the integration experience.…”

Refugees’ Transnational Practices: Gay Iranian Men Navigating Refugee Status and Cross-border Ties in Canada

“…Nevertheless, I recognize the limits of my sampling method in terms of generalizability and replicability because I may not have been able to reach individuals who were not members of my network or who were excluded due to gatekeepers’ bias. This limitation may have affected my understanding of intra-group diversities regarding the community members’ disparate educational and financial status as well as access to participants who are less active and connected in the community (Karimi 2019).…”

(Dis)Owning Exotic: Navigating Race, Intimacy, and Trans Identity

“…Motivated by both an intersectional theoretical framework and methodology—which various feminist researchers have championed (see Kleinman )—a case study approach to Nina's dating life facilitates close attention to the ways her assorted identities are co‐constitutive and how they are situated within an imperialist white supremacist capitalist (cishetero)patriarchal sociopolitical system (Hooks ). As Karimi () notes, various categories of difference can both limit and further the research process—I am in position to write this case study not because I solely sought out transgender respondents but rather because Nina was one of the few women who agreed to participate in my study and because I have been expected in other publications to foreground the cisgender women's experiences in my sample for theoretical consistency and clarity. A focus on Nina as a trans woman, a woman of color, an immigrant, and a woman interested in men does not suggest her identity is any more complex than other identities; however, her experiences do place in stark relief the ways normative and unmarked identities are given priority in literature on dating.…”