The Advantages of Online Interviews for Transmigrants and Transnational Migration Studies

Amir Akiva Segal

doi:10.29333/ajqr/14892

Amir Akiva Segal ¹ ^*

More Detail

AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 8, Issue 3, pp. 139-152

https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/14892

OPEN ACCESS 501 Views 213 Downloads

Download Full Text (PDF)

Abstract

This paper discusses interviewing migrants via online platforms and phone, claiming that remote interviews using these tools can be equivalent to and possibly even more effective than face-to-face interviews. It is based on 83 interviews conducted in person, by Zoom, and by phone with Jewish migrants to Israel from North America. Some interviews were conducted via Zoom and phone due to the concurrent COVID-19 restrictions. Previous papers have demonstrated that interviewing online or by phone can complement face-to-face interviews or be equivalent. This paper claims that in the case of interviewing migrants, remote interviews are, at least in some cases, more effective than in-person interviews for several reasons: This type of interview reduces the power relations characteristic of interviews, eliminates physical bodies, and also moves interviews to an online space that is transnational in nature (principally if interviewee and interviewer are not in the same country). Thus, the interview takes place both in the transnational online space and in each participant’s space. Logistically, it also makes the interview much more convenient.

Keywords: Interviews, migrants, online interviewing, remote interviewing, transmigrants

References

Amit, K., & Bar-Lev, S. (2016). The formation of transnational identity among French immigrants employed in French-speaking companies in Israel. International Migration, 54(3), 110‒124. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12239
Basch, L., Glick Schiller, N., & Blanc-Szanton, C. (Eds). (1994). Transnationalism: A new analytic framework for understanding migration. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 645, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1992.tb33484.x
Bauböck, R., & Faist, T. (2010). Diaspora and transnationalism: Concept, theories and methods. Amsterdam University Press.
Ben-Ezer, G. (2002). The Ethiopian Jewish exodus: Narratives of the migration-journey to Israel 1977–85. Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1996). Understanding. Theory, Culture & Society, 13(2), 17‒37. https://doi.org/10.1177/026327696013002002
Brocket, T. (2020). From “in-betweenness” to “positioned belongings”: Second-generation Palestinian-Americans negotiate the tensions of assimilation and transnationalism. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43(16), 135‒154. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2018.1544651
Edwards R., & Holland J., (2013). What is qualitative interviewing? Bloomsbury.
Faist, T. (2000). Transnationalization in international migration: Implications for the study of citizenship and culture. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 23(2), 189–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/014198700329024
Faist, T. (2004). The border-crossing expansion of social space: Concepts, questions and topics. In T. Faist & E. Özverenm (Eds.), Transnational Social spaces: Agents, networks and institutions (pp. 1‒36). Routledge.
Fernandez, E., Woldgabreal, Y., Day, A., Pham, T., Gleich, B., & Aboujaoude, E. (2021). Live psychotherapy by video versus in-person: A meta-analysis of efficacy and its relationship to types and targets of treatment. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 28(6), 1535–1549. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2594
Glass, Y. (1995). American and Canadian Jews in Eretz Israel [Doctoral dissertation, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem]. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283152605_Canadian_Studies_in_Israel_The_First_Twenty_Years
Glick Schiller, N. (2005). Transnational social fields and imperialism: Bringing a theory of power to Transnational Studies. Anthropological Theory, 5(4), 439‒461. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463499605059231
Glick Schiller, N. (2009). Theorizing about and beyond transnational processes. In M. Cervantes-Rodríguez, R. Grosfoguel, & E. Mielants (Eds.), Caribbean migration to Western Europe and the United States (pp. 18‒40). Temple University Press. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58987-3_2
Glick Schiller, N. (2018a). Theorising transnational migration in our times: A multiscalar temporal perspective. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 8(4), 201‒212. https://doi.org/10.2478/njmr-2018-0032
Glick Schiller, N. (2018b). Theorising about and beyond transnational processes. In J. E. Fossum, R. Kastoryano, & B. Siim (Eds.), Diversity and contestations over nationalism in Europe and Canada (pp. 31‒62). Palgrave Macmillan.
Glick Schiller, N., Basch, L., & Blanc-Szanton, C. (1992). Towards a transnational perspective on migration: Race, class, ethnicity, and nationalism reconsidered. New York Academy of Sciences.
Glick Schiller N., Basch, L., & Blanc-Szanton, C. (1995). From immigrant to transmigrant: Theorizing transnational migration. Anthropological Quarterly, 68(1), 48‒63. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3317464
Glick Schiller, N., & Meinhof, U. H. (2011). Singing a new song? Transnational migration, methodological nationalism and cosmopolitan perspectives. Music and Arts in Action, 3(3), 21‒39. https://musicandartsinaction.net/index.php/maia/article/view/singingnewsong
Golbert, R. (2001). Transnational orientations from home: Constructions of Israel and transnational space among Ukrainian Jewish youth. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 27(4), 713‒731. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-ukr5
Gray, L. M., Wong-Wylie, G., Rempel, G. R., & Cook, K. (2020). Expanding qualitative research interviewing strategies: Zoom video communications. The Qualitative Report, 25(5), 1292‒1301. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4212
Herzog, H. (2014). דרכים לדעת – דמיון של התנגדות: מבט פמיניסטי על ריאיון העומק בחברה מרואיינת [Ways of knowing—Oppositional imagination: Feminist perspective on in-depth interview in interview society]. In L. Krumer-Nevo, M. Ajayi, & D. Hacker (Eds.), מתודולוגיות מחקר פמיניסטיות [Feminist research methodologies[ (pp. 32–53). Migdarim (genders) Series, Hakibbutz Hameuchad.
Itzigsohn, J., Dore Cabral, C., Hernandez Medina, E., & Vazquez, O. (1999). Mapping Dominican transnationalism: Narrow and broad transnational practices. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22(2), 316‒339. https://doi.org/10.1080/014198799329503
Kearney, M. (1995). The local and the global: The anthropology of globalization and transnationalism. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 547‒565. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2155949
Kivisto, P. (2001). Theorizing transnational immigration: A critical review of current efforts. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 24(4), 549–577. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870120049789
Klingenberg, A., Luetz, J. M., & Crawford, A. (2020). Transnationalism ‒ Recognizing the strengths of dual belonging for both migrant and society. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 22(2), 453–470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-019-00744-2
Levin, P., & Glick Schiller, N. (2004). Conceptualized simultaneity: A transnational social field perspective on society. The International Migration Review, 38(3),1002‒1039. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2004.tb00227.x
Levitt, P. (2004). Transnational migrants: When “home” means more than one country. Migration Policy Institute Online Journal. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/transnational-migrants-when-home-means-more-one-country
Loizos, P. (2000). Video, film and photographs as research documents. In M. W. Bauer & G. Gaskell (Eds.), Qualitative researching with text, image and sound. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849209731
Lomsky-Feder, E., & Rapoport, T. (2010). נראות בהגירה: גוף, מבט, ייצוג [Visibility in immigration: Body, gaze, representation]. Van Leer and Ha’kibutz Hameuchad.
Lomsky-Feder, E., Rapoport, T., Lerner, J., Kuntsman, A., & Kaplan, Y. (2007). ] לדבר בשפתם? זרות, בית ויחסי כוח בראיון עם מהגרים Speaking their language? Estrangement, home and power relations in interviews with immigrants[. Megamot, 44(4), 636–654.
Oakley, A. (1998). Gender, methodology and people’s ways of knowing: Some problems with feminism and the paradigm debate in social science. Sociology, 32(4), 707–731. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038598032004005
Peasgood, T., Bourke, M., Devlin, N., Rowen, D., Yang, Y., & Dalziel, K. (2023). Randomised comparison of online interviews versus face-to-face interviews to value health states. Social Science and Medicine, 323, Article 115818. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115818
Pinsky, D. (2015). The sustained snapshot: Incidental ethnographic encounters in qualitative interview studies. Qualitative Research, 15(3), 281–295. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112473493
Pugh, A. J. (2013). What good are interviews for thinking about culture? Demystifying interpretative analysis. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 1(1), 42–68. https://doi.org/10.1057/AJCS.2012.4
Pullen Sansfaçon, A., Gravel, E., & Gelly, M. A. (2024). Dealing with scam in online qualitative research: Strategies and ethical considerations. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231224610
Quirke, E., Potter, R. B., & Conway, D. (2010). Transnationalism and the Caribbean community in the UK: Theoretical perspectives. The Open Geography Journal, 3, 1‒14. https://benthamopen.com/contents/pdf/TOGEOGJ/TOGEOGJ-3-1.pdf
Rebhun, U. and Lev-Ari, L. (2010). American Israelis: Migration, Transnationalism and Diasporic Identity. Boston: Brill, Leiden.
Rebhun, U. (2014). "Immigrant Acculturation and Transnationalism: Israelis in the United States and Europe Compared." Journal of Scientific Study of Religion, 53(3): 613-635. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jssr.12135
Segal, A. A. (2020). תעסוקה כחלק מתהליך ההגירה של עולים מארצות הברית לישראל [Employment in the process of migration and absorption of Jewish migrants from United States to Israel]. Hagira - Israel Journal of Migration, 10, 120‒140.
Segal, A. A. (2023). Homeland run: Israeli baseball and American transmigrants. Contemporary Jewry, 43(1), 97–120.
Segal, A. A., & Guetzkow, J. (2023). Transnational immigrants encounter the workplace: North American Jewish migrants in Israel who work in fundraising. Migration Letters, 20(7), 1167–1184.
Thunberg, S., & Arnell, L. (2022). Pioneering the use of technologies in qualitative research: A research review of the use of digital interviews. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 25(6), 757–768. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2021.1935565
Tovianen, M., & Kivisto, P. (2014). Homing desire at the juncture of place and transnational spaces: The case of young Kurds in Finland. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 4(2), 65‒72. https://doi.org/10.2478/njmr-2014-0011
Vertovec, S. (2001). Transnationalism and identity. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 27(4), 573‒582. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691830120090386
Wakelin, K. J., McAra-Couper, J., & Fleming, T. (2024). Using an online platform for conducting face-to-face interviews. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069241234183
Watson, A. (2020). Consuming media at home due to the coronavirus worldwide 2020, by country. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1106498/home-media-consumption-coronavirus-worldwide-by-country/
Yadlin-Segal, A. (2020). Articulating Persian identities between Iran and Israel: On nationality, diasporas, and lived ethnicities in online media. Nations and Nationalism, 27(1), 347–362. https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12639
Zapata-Barrero, R. & Yalaz, E. (Eds.) (2018), Qualitative Research in European Migration Studies, Springer Nature https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/29754

Citation

Segal, A. A. (2024). The Advantages of Online Interviews for Transmigrants and Transnational Migration Studies. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 8(3), 139-152. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/14892

Segal, A. A. (2024). The Advantages of Online Interviews for Transmigrants and Transnational Migration Studies. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 8(3), pp. 139-152. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/14892

Segal AA. The Advantages of Online Interviews for Transmigrants and Transnational Migration Studies. AM J QUALITATIVE RES. 2024;8(3), 139-152. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/14892

Segal, Amir Akiva. "The Advantages of Online Interviews for Transmigrants and Transnational Migration Studies". American Journal of Qualitative Research 2024 8 no. 3 (2024): 139-152. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/14892

Segal, Amir Akiva "The Advantages of Online Interviews for Transmigrants and Transnational Migration Studies". American Journal of Qualitative Research, vol. 8, no. 3, 2024, pp. 139-152. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/14892

Segal AA. The Advantages of Online Interviews for Transmigrants and Transnational Migration Studies. AM J QUALITATIVE RES. 2024;8(3):139-52. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/14892