Researching precarious migrations: Qualitative strategies towards a positive transformation of the politics of migration
| Published date | 01 May 2018 |
| Date | 01 May 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1369148118759616 |
| Author | Vicki Squire |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148118759616
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2018, Vol. 20(2) 441 –458
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148118759616
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Researching precarious
migrations: Qualitative
strategies towards a positive
transformation of the politics
of migration
Vicki Squire
Abstract
How can research contribute to a positive transformation of the politics of migration? This article
addresses the question with reference to a recent research project, Crossing the Mediterranean
Sea by Boat, which maps and documents the journeys and experiences of people on the move
across the Mediterranean. It explores how qualitative research engaging research participants as
people with the authority to speak can affect change by exposing claims and demands that compel
‘receiving communities’ to bear witness to the contemporary violence of policies and practices.
Exploring the dissemination strategy of sharing stories through interactive maps and research–
art collaboration, the article emphasises the importance of strategies that foster constructive
connections between diverse constituencies. This development, the article argues, involves
a process of translation that goes beyond a form of passive empathy and that works towards
positive transformation of a slower duration, albeit in terms that remain discomforting.
Keywords
art, empathy, migration, stories
Introduction
Contemporary migration politics are not only characterised by rising numbers of dis-
placed persons (UNHCR, 2017). They are also marked by practices of containment
(Brown, 2010; Jones, 2012; Tazzioli, 2017) and abandonment (Heller and Pezzani, 2015;
Squire, 2017c), that render people precarious (Squire, in press) while dehumanising those
on the move (Vaughan-Williams, 2017). Given that policy initiatives continue to fail in
preventing increasing border deaths (Spijkerboer, 2007, 2013, 2017), scholars in the
fields of migration and border studies face a pressing question: how can research
Department of Politics and International Studies, The University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Corresponding author:
Vicki Squire, Department of Politics and International Studies, The University of Warwick, Coventry CV4
7AL, Warwickshire, UK.
Email: V.J.Squire@warwick.ac.uk
759616BPI0010.1177/1369148118759616The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsSquire
research-article2018
Original Article
442 The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 20(2)
contribute to a positive transformation of the politics of migration, in order that death and
vulnerability no longer dominate the experiences of people on the move? This article
charts some of the ways in which researchers have responded to this question, focusing in
particular on works that relate to precarious migrations across the Mediterranean Sea by
boat. It then goes on to develop an approach that emphasises both a qualitative research
methodology that is grounded in an appreciation of people on the move as having claims
and demands which are important to consider in the formation of policy, and a dissemina-
tion strategy that fosters constructive connections between ‘new arrivals’ and ‘receiving
communities’. The case for such an approach is developed with reference to a specific
research project that maps and documents the journeys and experiences of people on the
move to the European Union (EU) through the Mediterranean via North Africa and
Turkey: Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat.
In discussing the project’s qualitative methodology and dissemination strategy, this
article does not pose one research strategy or set of research strategies as superior to oth-
ers. Rather, it aims to reflect on the distinctive dimensions of the qualitative research of
Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat precisely in order to contribute to a discussion
of how research can contribute to positive transformation in the field of migration poli-
tics. This reflection is important in order to move beyond the current impasse, in which
border deaths have become the norm and in which humanitarian or charitable responses
to migration are ineffective in challenging the violent effects of contemporary policies
(Squire, 2015, 2017c). The article suggests that the qualitative approach developed in
Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat is distinctive because it facilitates engagement
with research participants as people with the authority to speak about migratory dynamics
and policy effects. It explores how, on the basis of this engagement, a dissemination strat-
egy of story sharing through interactive mapping facilitates the formation of constructive
connections between people on the move and ‘receiving communities’. These connec-
tions are based on a practice of bearing witness that demands collective responsibility for
the production of death and vulnerability. This emphasis marks the research approach of
Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat out not only from quantitative research that
operates in terms that objectify people on the move but also from qualitative research that
simply seeks to re-humanise through strategies such as storytelling. In sharing stories
through interactive mapping Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat goes further, the
article argues, because it enables appreciation of the claims and demands that are made on
the basis of precarious journeys and experiences, while contributing to the creation of
conditions for positive change by grounding the connections between diverse constituen-
cies in relations of equality and respect.
Qualitative research and a transformation of the politics of
migration
How can research contribute to the positive transformation of the politics of migration?
And why is such research important? In an academic context where the value of impactful
research has taken on increasing significance and in a political context where both policy
and wider public responses have created the conditions for death and vulnerability, an
increasing range of scholars have become concerned to find ways to affect change (see
also Garrelli and Tazzioli, 2013). In relation to the so-called Mediterranean ‘migration
crisis’, some have undertaken research in collaboration with international agencies and
non-governmental organisations in order to initiate practical transformation in areas such
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