Qualitative Research in European Migration Studies

Ricard Zapata-Barrero is a Full Professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences, at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona-Catalonia). His main lines of research deal with contemporary issues of liberal democracy in contexts of diversity, especially the relationship between democracy, citizenship, human mobility and immigration. Director of GRITIM-UPF (Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration) and the MSc in Migration Studies at UPF. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the largest research network on Immigration in Europe IMISCOE.  He is also a member of several academic journals editorial boards, and of scientific committees of various  research centers. Occasional contributor to media and policy debates. Evren Yalaz is a post-doctoral researcher at Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration, University of Pompeu Fabra (GRITIM-UPF). She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Rutgers University. Her research interests engage with questions about the politics of migrants, transnationalism, migrants' community organizations, and comparative politics of citizenship, migration, and integration. In her dissertation, she examined the sources of variations in trajectories of immigrant political incorporation by focusing on Turkish immigrants and their organizations in Germany and France. Currently, she works at a comparative project that analyzes non-electoral political mobilization of Spanish emigrants in different European cities.

“It has an impressive list of authors … . mix of chapters with different methods and research designs makes the scope of the volume quite wide. … an interesting and useful book. … Overall, the edited volume is a useful read for any student or scholar planning to start a new research project. … thus easily available, I predict the book will find its way onto the curricula of many study programmes of the field of migration studies.” (Saara Koikkalainen, Nordic Journal of Migration Research NJMR, Vol. 11 (3), 2021)

• Chapter 1: Introduction – Preparing the Way for Qualitative Research in Migration Studies.- Chapter 2: Mapping the Qualitative Migration Research in Europe: An Exploratory Analysis: Evren Yalaz, Ricard Zapata Barrero.- Part I: Theoretical and Epistemological Issues: Chapter 3: Context-based Qualitative Research and Multi-Sited Migration Studies in Europe: Russell King.- Chapter 4: Moving out of the Comfort Zone: Promises and Pitfalls of Interdisciplinary Migration Research in Europe: Maren Borkert.- Chapter 5: Applied Political Theory and Qualitative Research in Migration Studies: Ricard Zapata Barrero.- Chapter 6: Epistemological Issues in Qualitative Migration Research: Self-reflexivity, Objectivity and Subjectivity: Theodoros Iosifides.- Chapter 7: Qualitative Migration Research: Viable Goals, Open-Ended Questions, and Multidimensional Answers: Ewa Morawska.- Chapter 8: Categorising What We Study and What We Analyse, and the Exercise of Interpretation: Dirk Jacobs.- Chapter9: Where, What and Whom to Study? Principles, Guidelines and Empirical Examples of Case Selection and Sampling in Migration Research: Karolina Barglowski.- Chapter 10: The Interview in Migration Studies: A Step towards a Dialogue and Knowledge Co-production?: Olena Fedyuk, Violetta Zentai.- Chapter 11: Focus Groups in Migration Research: A Forum for “Public Thinking”?: Annalisa Frisina.- Chapter 12: Participant Observation in Migration Studies: An Overview and Some Emerging Issues: Paolo Boccagni, Mieke Schrooten.- Chapter 13: Discourse and Migration: Teun A. van Dijk.- Chapter 14: Doing Digital Migration Studies: Methodological Considerations for an Emerging Research Focus: Koen Leurs,Madhuri Prabhakar.- Part IV: Significant Requirements before Embarking: Chapter 15: Methodological and Ethical Dilemmas in Research among Smuggled Migrants: Ilse van Liempt, Veronika Bilger.- Chapter 16: Research-policy Relations and Migration Studies: Peter Scholten.- About the authors.