Emotional Introspection: The Politics and Challenges of Contemporary Migration Research

Field-based research increasingly involves working in complex, sometimes insecure and often emotionally challenging situations. While most researchers are trained in issues pertaining to security, ethics and responsibility, less preparation goes into the emotional aspects of conducting fieldwork and, upon return, dealing with the retrospective processing of often hard real-life experiences in analysis and writing. Based on long-term observation and more recent systematic interviews with colleagues who all have worked in emotionally challenging situations, this chapter discusses the particularities of doing migration research in times of stricter migration policy and practice. Special emphasis is put on the institutional structures and cultures surrounding our research, the implications of emotions in the field, the unequal relationship between the people being studied, the local gatekeepers and researchers, and on what can be done prior to, during and after going to the field to maintain both security and emotional engagement, ‘do no harm’, and avoid occupational hazards of burnout, compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress among those involved.