(Shared) ethnicity in ethnographic research on clandestine and informal practices in the migrant and ethnic minority economy : Methodological and ethical challenges
<p class="first" id="d3815517e69">This article addresses the methodological and ethical challenges of ethnographic research on sensitive topics such as clandestine practices in the migrant and ethnic minority economy. Drawing on related criminologica...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Pluto Journals
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/workorgalaboglob.16.1.0088 |
| Summary: | <p class="first" id="d3815517e69">This article addresses the methodological and ethical challenges of ethnographic research
on sensitive topics such as clandestine practices in the migrant and ethnic minority
economy. Drawing on related criminological and sociology of deviance literature I
draw on my experiences of insider-ethnographic research in the Chinese migrant and
ethnic minority economy in the Netherlands and Romania to demonstrate how stigmas
related to race/ethnicity and clandestine practices can strongly shape access, rapport
and researcher’s positionality in the field. Research participants’ concerns about
these stigmas also revealed ethical questions on how to report on clandestine and
informal practices without contributing to further stigmatisation and racialisation.
At the same time, my experiences show that whether clandestine practices and race/ethnicity
are considered sensitive topics is an emergent issue. In the Netherlands, due to active
enforcement of clandestine practices in the migrant and ethnic minority economy, these
practices were a sensitive topic of inquiry. In Romania, by contrast, clandestine
practices were not treated as sensitive subject matter as these were normalised by
research participants and broader Romanian society, due to a lack of active enforcement
and criminalisation.
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| ISSN: | 1745-641X 1745-6428 |