‘Visiting Home’ as a Method and Experience: Researching Russian Migrants’ Homes in the UK

Abstract

This chapter draws on a study which examined the interrelation between home, migration and cultural identity, using home-based qualitative interviews as the main method of data collection. As the chapter shows, while the home as an interview setting offers opportunities to see and discuss objects in their actual location as well as engage the senses, it also poses challenges of ethical and methodological nature. This chapter presents a discussion of the home interview situation and the ways it came to reveal different contexts and relationships that produced a host/guest dynamic that reflected various expectations from both the researcher and the participants. While the domestic space provides welcome and hospitality, it also imposes boundaries and rules. Overall, the chapter calls for a more methodologically nuanced and reflexive approach to the home-based interview that can uncover meanings, attachments and relationships that affect both participants and researchers.