Florian Znaniecki’s Theory and Methodology and Analysis of the Contemporary Immigration to the United States

• In Event: 549 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Theorizing Migration and Assimilation

Abstract

As Florian Zaniecki, classical theorists, argued, the researcher has to acknowledge that social facts are created by the observed subjects and thus can be understood only by the subject themselves. To study social reality, sociologists have to understand how others see the world via their own experiences and researchers are obligated to account and record the way world is viewed by subjects of the study. Scientific interpretations must flow from the sources (the individuals who are subject of study) or from the world of consciousness of others, means the subject’s perception of social reality. This so called Humanistic Sociology and its humanistic coefficient denotes that the researcher does not relay on own observations alone but reconstructs the content and the experience of subjects involved in the study when collecting and interpreting data. Sociologists have to understand how others see the world via their own experiences, to record the way world is viewed by subjects of the study. To test applicability of this theoretical approach, I use Znaniecki’s methodology to study political refugees from war and conflict ridden countries and economic migrants arriving recently to Buffalo, New York, a city that is one of the main hub of resettlement of immigrants in the United States since the 1980s. I argue that to truly understand the push and pulls for immigration, immigrants’ adjustment to American life, as well as obstacles and benefits to local communities that embrace them, humanistic principle could be the most useful methodological tool.

Author

• Barbara Wejnert, University at Buffalo