Why should(n’t) refugees be asked about their possessions? A research-ethical and methodological reflection on my fieldwork in a refugee shelter

Abstract

"Conclusion: object-based interviews as sensitive access to individual escape stories? Talking about personal things made visible both their roles at the individual stages of the flight and the connections between life in the country of origin, the causes of escape and the expectations people had of the destination. Escape proved to be a process, which consisted of several stages that were neither independent of each other nor clearly demarcated, and it is in many cases difficult to distinguish escape from a ‘previous’ life. Even though the focus on things often made conversations easier and inspired their owners to recount their strategies and world views in a more vivid and focused way, personal things were not important for all interlocutors. They often appeared as irrelevant, as trivialities, or simply were not there and not missed. Thus, before asking about the possessions and their significance for their owners, one must ask whether they have any relevance at all. This puts into question material culture as an easy and sensitive method of eliciting people’s personal stories. In researching the phenomenon of forced migration with residents of a refugee shelter, one must also have the sensitivity not to talk about things. It is therefore necessary to consider how to deal with meaninglessness and absence of things in the context of such research. For me, depending on the situation and the person, this meant shifting the focus away from the things (back) to the person, if necessary: in other words, to do exactly what qualitative research is all about, namely to maintain an ‘openness’ throughout the research process to reflecting constantly on the limits and dangers of the applied research method." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Höpfner, E. (2022): Why should(n’t) refugees be asked about their possessions? A research-ethical and methodological reflection on my fieldwork in a refugee shelter. In: F. Yi-Neumann, A. Lauser, A. Fuhse & P. J. Bräunlein (Hrsg.) (2022): Material Culture and (Forced) Migration, London, UCL Press p. 84-98, accepted on November 17, 2021.