2019

El régimen de deportación estadounidense y sus consecuencias humanas
Conferencia Magistral, Primer Congreso Internacional de Migración, November 29
Tec de Monterrey, Campus Querétaro,
Querétaro, México

2020

Why and how should we research the deportation of foreigners? Epistemological, methodological and ethical issues in deportation studies (with Ibrahim Soysüren)
Online workshop at the University of Wolverhampton and University of Neuchâtel, September 3–4

• Registration
• Program
• References
• Papers
• Call for papers

2019

Ageing, migrations and beyond – Presentation, Discussion and Future Research Application of Ethnomorality of Care Approach (with Anna Rosińska and Weronika Kloc-Nowak)
Workshop at the 16th IMISCOE Annual Conference Understanding International Migration in the 21st Century: Conceptual and Methodological Approaches, June 28
Malmö, Sweden

2018

How to study elderly care in Transnational Families? Methodological implications of the ethnomoralities of care approach

Workshop in Quantitative Research Methods at MIG/AGEING concluding conference “Ageing under lowest-low fertility and high emigration: The demography, the politics and the socio-economic challenges,” June 5–7

University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

Call for abstracts for a special issue “Researching deportability and deportation: methodological implications”, Agnieszka Radziwinowiczówna, Ibrahim Soysüren (eds.)

Over the last two decades, the promotion of the deportation of foreigners and its extensive implementation have gone hand in hand with a growing interest in the topic among researchers in humanities, social sciences and legal studies. One of the outcomes of this interest is the term “deportation studies” (Coutin, 2015) coined and increasingly used to define research on numerous aspects of the deportation of foreigners. One can argue that this field of inquiry is solely defined by the research topic, the deportation of foreigners, that can be defined as the “compulsory removal of ‘aliens’ from the physical, juridical and social space of the state” (Peutz and De Genova 2010:1). By proposing this special issue, we argue that there are methodological aspects of deportation studies that make this area of inquiry distinct.

On the one hand, deportation is a power technique (Foucault 1979) which is generally deemed to be hidden, especially as it requires the actual use of violence. As an instrument of nation-states, deportation has become a global practice of power (De Genova and Peutz 2010). Moreover, deportation has been normalized. Researches who are interested in deportation must question this normalization. As a consequence, the deportation studies tend to be interpreted as a criticism of state practices. This, in turn, can lead to important limitations of the research, as the actors supporting the deportation regime may refuse to participate in the study and funding agencies may reject to sponsor research projects on deportation.

On the other hand, deportation is a sensitive (Lee 1993) and emotional (Malacrida 2007) topic which requires special ways of doing research in order to get access to field, collect data, analyse and present it. During the fieldwork, it is frequently necessary to put in place measures to protect the researchers themselves as well as the actors of deportation processes, especially the most vulnerable ones, such as deportables and deportees. Ethnographic research on forced migration implies multisited transnational research involving numerous actors, as the deportable individuals are moved between detention centres and are eventually deported.

This special issue focuses on methodological implications of researching the subjects and objects of deportation policies, as well as other actors who are either compliant with or resist them. The articles will present the experience of researchers who have worked with the plethora of actors involved in deportations such as immigration enforcement agencies and their private contractors, the deportable and deported people and actors who support them, the communities the deportable and deportees join or belong to. Therefore, the contributions to the volume discuss the methodological aspects of engaging them in the research on deportation, including the access and trust, engagement of the researcher and ethical concerns as well as epistemological dimension of methodological choices.

This special issue welcomes contributions including, but not limited to, the following topics in the research of deportations:

• methods of data collection, analysis and publication;
• access to fieldwork;
• gaining trust;
• engagement and positionality of the researcher;
• ethical challenges;
• inclusivity and involving less represented groups of the deportable and deportees in the research (children, the elderly, women);
• doing research in the areas of conflict;
• the challenges of bi-lingual research;
• researching post-deportation;
• working with various actors involved in the deportation process.

This special issue will be proposed to a high-impact journal. If interested in participation in the special issue, please send the tentative title of the paper and a short explanation of the topic (about 100 words) to the editors of the special issue: Agnieszka Radziwinowiczówna (a.radziwinowiczowna@wlv.ac.uk) and Ibrahim Soysüren (ibrahim.soysuren@unine.ch) by October 30, 2020. We will get back to you with the feedback on the topic by November 13 and will ask you to prepare a 500-word abstract of your paper and your short bio by November 27, 2020.

References
Coutin, S. B.
2014    “Deportation Studies: Origins, Themes and Directions”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 41(4): 671–681.

De Genova, N., and N. Peutz, eds.
2010    The Deportation Regime: Sovereignty, Space, and the Freedom of Movement. Durham: Duke University Press Books.

Foucault, M.
1979    Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.

Lee, Raymond M.
1993    Doing Research on Sensitive Topics. London: Sage Publications.

Malacrida, C.

2007 “Reflexive Journaling on Emotional Research Topics: Ethical Issues for Team Researchers”, Qualitative Health Research 17(10): 1329–1339.

Peutz, N., and N. De Genova
2010    “Introduction”, in The Deportation Regime: Sovereignty, Space, and the Freedom of Movement. N. De Genova and N. Peutz, eds. Pp. 1–32. Durham: Duke University Press Books.