Methodological challenges of traditional and virtual anthropological fieldwork in migrant integration research: the case of Chinese-Hungarian interethnic partner relationships

Kovács, Nóra (2017) Methodological challenges of traditional and virtual anthropological fieldwork in migrant integration research: the case of Chinese-Hungarian interethnic partner relationships. Romanian Journal of Population Studies. ISSN 1843-5998

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Abstract

"The paper is based on a piece of anthropological research on Chinese-Hungarian mixed partner relationships. Focusing on the role of the different social and cultural backgrounds in the lives of these couples, the study addresses a series of questions concerning mixed marriage as a channel of Chinese migrants’ integration in Hungary. This qualitative research on the intimate relations between members of a highly transnational migrant population and members of local Hungarian society posed a number of methodological challenges. A substantial segment of the data was collected through ethnographic fieldwork where the otherwise inexistent ethnographic field (i.e. no community formed by mixed couples; the lack of a geographical or an online locality) was defined by the initially formulated research questions. Fieldwork was complemented by the collection of diverse data from computer mediated communication carried out by members of Chinese-Hungarian couples and their family members, however, combining information available in online space with data gathered through face-to-face interaction has proved to be problematic. Finally, informants’ anonymity, the academic value of an extended ethnographic fieldwork as opposed to a survey, and the political afterlife of research results are also discussed. "

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