Mixed Methods in International Migration Research: Reflections on a Multicity Study

Abstract

Based on a completed project on immigration that followed mixed methods approach, this case study elaborates on the strategies that budding researchers can adopt to offset the negative impact of using data from outsourced questionnaires. A statistical test that helps compare two sample distributions drawn from two different sources is discussed. Reflecting on the qualitative part, the case study explores how nationality and citizenship are practiced in everyday life in Singapore. Examining my experience of interviewing the local-born population, I elaborate on the challenges that a nonnational researcher is likely to face in doing field research on immigration. Contrastingly, it is shown that the researchers’ familiarity with the sociopolitical discourses in the immigrants’ country of origin helps them draw links between immigrants’ transnational identities and their political leanings situated within the ideology of the sending-state.

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