Decolonial Methodology in Migration: Studying Skilled Immigrant Workers in the United States

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 12. Highly skilled / white collar migration

Abstract

In this paper, I will present an in-depth methodological discussion on unpacking the paradox of privilege and precarity among elite but racialized immigrants in the United States. I will share decolonial methodological strategies that I have used in two research projects. In one of them, I have interviewed 32 Indian immigrant tech workers, and conducted in-person and virtual ethnography (2020–2025). In the other project, I have interviewed 12 Indian immigrant academic workers in US higher education institutions, and conducted workplace ethnography (2025–2026). Overall, I will demonstrate how decolonial methodologies strengthen sociological research on migration by revealing more nuanced aspects of immigrant precarity that may even intersect with privilege.
I have used three strategies of decolonial methodologies, centering on: (1) the history of colonialism and coloniality; (2) critique of methodological nationalism; (3) the relationality of individual and collective experiences of migration.

Author

• Rianka Roy, Wake Forest University