Social Research Methods: Migration in Perspective

Authors

  • AKM Ahsan Ullah University Brunei Darussalam http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1441-141X
  • Md. Akram Hossain University of Bergen
  • Mohammad Azizuddin Newcastle University Business School
  • Faraha Nawaz Rajshahi University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v17i2.869

Keywords:

Migration, borders, boundaries, integration, migrant descendants

Abstract

Migration specific methodologies for research have not yet emerged in a unified manner; hence, a void in scholarship persists which has resulted in the growing dilemmas in conducting research on migrant populations. The growing attention given to the research that involves migration has not yet been passably translated into corresponding research on the methodological challenges researchers generally handle. Quantitative methods have come under criticism for not providing an in-depth description of a phenomenon. Hence many researchers employ the mixed-method approach. This allows numerical data to be supplemented by qualitative findings and contextual explanations of both researchers and researched. We argue that no way is researching in a normal condition similar to the precarious conditions migrants go through. Due to the vulnerable positions of migrants who are the main population of migration research, it demands special attention in selecting and implementing appropriate methods.

Author Biographies

AKM Ahsan Ullah, University Brunei Darussalam

Dr AKM Ahsan Ullah is an Associate Professor specialised in Sociology of Migration. He was Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Ullah's research portfolio includes stints at the Southeast Asian Research Centre (SEARC), Hong Kong; IPH, University of Ottawa, Saint Mary's University; Canada; the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. In his home country of Bangladesh, he was the Research Coordinator of Plan International, an international organization focusing on child and rural development in 68 countries around the world. His tasks involved developing research materials for the Dhaka-based BRAC, one of the largest national NGOs in the world with more than 100,000 staff.

Ullah has also conducted and headed several research projects including a rural poverty alleviation program, city dwellers and rural to urban migration programs, and knowledge and awareness sessions for HIV/AIDS of commercial sex workers and their clients. He has also been active in the lives of street children, under the auspices of the Association for Rural Development and Studies (ARDS) in Bangladesh.

Faraha Nawaz, Rajshahi University

Faraha Nawaz, Associate Professor, Public Administration, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh. 

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Published

2020-04-02

How to Cite

Ullah, A. A., Hossain, M. A., Azizuddin, M., & Nawaz, F. (2020). Social Research Methods: Migration in Perspective. Migration Letters, 17(2), 357–368. https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v17i2.869

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2020): Special Issue: Participatory Methods in Migration Research

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