Talking to irregular migrants
• Dr. Ilse van Liempt
• PhD on human smuggling• 2007: Navigating Borders.
Inside perspectives on the process of human smuggling into the Netherlands.
What method to choose when researching human smuggling?
• ESF project on human smuggling (2002-2006)• 6 European countries, different methods
• Document analysis, police files, court cases• Expert interviews with people working in the field• Ethnographic research• Interviewing migrants
An inside perspective and biographical interviews
• Lack of available data on what smuggling means for migrants
• Gap between official discourses/policies and narrated experiences of migrants
• The biographical method to understand the decision-making process and smuggling experience
• Most respondents had gone through interview processes before talking to me
The interview setting
• Look for atypical situation with regard to official interview setting, informal, at people’s home
• Accept people’s agency and be flexible with regard to what they want to talk about
‘ I had the feeling they wanted to make my story simpler than it was’
Working with research assistants
• The issue of translators and research assistants • Native speakers and people who have the same
experience can take away mistrust. • Snowballing does not work when topic is sensitive!• Research assistants used their own personal network• Disadvantages of working with research assistants:
respondents often remain within one network, assistants may be biased towards topic
Why would smuggled migrants participate in research?
Reasons people have for not participating:- Climate of fear: ‘So you are from immigration’?- The researcher is an unknown person- Research in itself can be seen as useless- Participating can be harmful for ‘illegal’ migrants
Despite this, why did people participate?
- Desire to raise political awareness by making own story public (either through journalism or research)
- The social atmosphere during interview: being surprised that an outsider is interested or thinking one might benefit from contact (legal advise/marriage of convenience etc)
- Smuggling is not seen by all people as a crime- 56 interviews with smuggled migrants from Horn of
Africa, former Soviet Union and Iraq
When to do the interview?
• Try to avoid moments of extreme stress on the side of the respondents, like when asylum outcomes are soon to be made known.
• We only interviewed people who were already in the Netherlands for a while
The political context in which the interview takes place
Biographical interviews help to distance oneself from Institutions.
Official stories may be influenced by migration policies, the asylum system
“You have to find your way into the system”
The political context in which the interview takes place
Official stories may also be influenced by smugglers who instruct migrants on what to tell and what to hide
“The success of the fieldwork hinged not so much on a determination to ferret out ‘the facts’ as on a willingness to leave some stones unturned, to listen to what my informants deemed important, and to demonstrate my trustworthiness by not prying where I was not wanted…Malkki, 1995
Revealing ‘secrets’ on smuggling routes may be unethical
How to deal with sensitive data?
• Traumas and mental distress can impact the quality of the information people remember/are willing to talk about.
• Is it ethical to ask a person to recall painful events?
• Data protection is crucial in this field
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!
