Subject-subject or subject-object relationships?

UCL DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHYUCL DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

Subject-subject or subject-object relationships?

The practicalities of doing qualitative research in Russian-speaking migrants in London

Darya Malyutina

UCL Department of Geography

UCL DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

Some history

• Russian migration to the UK in its current size is a recent phenomenon

• Since the beginning of the 20th century – intellectuals, politicians, and revolutionaries

• Migration increased after the break-up of the Soviet Union

• Diaspora established and started to grow rapidly 10-15 years ago


Figures

• Exact number of migrants from the FSU in London and the UK – still unclear!

• In London – estimated between 300,000 and 500,000• Top nationalities for UK visa applications: Indian (19%)

Nigerian (8%), Pakistani and Chinese (each 7%), and Russian nationals (6%)

• Year 2007: 258,000 Russian people given a leave to enter to UK (Home Office, 2008; Danzelman, 2009) Of those, 82,500 (business visitors, students, work permit holders, spouses of UK citizens) are most likely to stay for long and become members of the diaspora


Infrastructure

• The Embassy, two Orthodox churches, at least one newspaper exist for more than half a century

• Cultural organizations (The Russian Speaking Community Council, Pushkin House etc.), cultural production and promotion organizations like Eventica and Ensemble Productions

• At least 13 schools• Around 10 newspapers and magazines• More than 20 restaurants• More than 100 shops• …and a lot of law firms


Settlement and social stratification

• “…no area of compacted habitation” (Russian Embassy)

• Disperse character of settlement, largely class-defined

• Presence of all social layers and occupational categories in the community


Case study 1Relationships between migrants: bar ethnography

• Initial insight into the social life of Russian-speaking community: ethnographic study of a Russian bar.

• Aimed to show how sociality and friendship ties are sustained and reproduced in a definite place relevant to migrants’ community.


Case study 1Methods and objectives

• February-June 2009• Method: participant observation• Focused on the following areas:

– the bar environment; – the history of the bar; – relationships of various types: a) between owner and staff; b)

among bartenders; c) between staff and customers; d) among customers (Russian-speaking staff and customers were regarded separately from non-Russian speakers).


Case study 2Networks and friendship in the migrant community

• Friendship and networking - important source of social capital and help maintaining social cohesion

• Aimed at exploring the more general networking process among Russian-speaking migrants in London


Case study 2Methods

• January-July 2010• Narrative interviewing of a sample of Russian-speaking

migrants selected by snowball technique (25 people)• Respondents tell stories about how they got acquainted

with all London-based Russian-speakers whose numbers they have in their mobile phonebooks

• The biggest possible variety of respondents’ social statuses


Problems of access and establishing relationships

Examples:• perception of the researcher as a KGB agent; • impossible to chase the person working as a

butler for Berezovsky’s family; • non-motivated refuse from a very secretive lawyer


Problems of sustaining relationships

• Ethnography implies a high degree of involvement into the life of community

• “Sometimes there is nothing to talk about with you. You are all about your science and books”

• Hypocrisy in relationships for the sake of research?


Problems of “tangible” character

• i.e. physical risks• Alcohol consumption – very topical for our

research• “I will give you an interview, but only if I am

smoking at the same time. And if you are smoking with me.”


Problems of the attitude to respondents

• Are these people my friends or objects for study?• Some moments and patterns of communication

become natural for your personal everyday life and fall out from your interest as a researcher

• Too personal perception of certain interactions may bias your analysis


Problems of researcher’s involvement and identity

• “Looking-glass self”: created through the imagination of how one's self might be understood by another individual

• Who am I – researcher or part of the group? • Fragmentation of personality


He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Subject-subject or subject-object relationships?

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