Pushing Methodological Borders in Migration Studies

• In Event: Methodologies for Exploring and Creating Narratives of Migration and Transnationalism in Various Contexts

Abstract

Purpose: Migration is a phenomenon that continues to touch every part of the world due to poverty, persecution, environmental disasters, war, and an overall inability to survive with dignity. Researchers work to understand push and pull factors and the humanity of immigrants in ways that go beyond statistics and dehumanizing labels. Within the context of education, it’s important to understand the experiences of students and families across national, linguistic, and cultural borders as they grapple with their own identities and external perceptions. This paper explores how moving from traditional to multimodal research methods more fully captures transborder realities.

Theoretical Framework: Migration can be a cyclical phenomenon, although it is generally presented as linear. Return migration for undocumented immigrants to one’s country of origin is often thought of as a consequence of deportation, but people often return due to coercion and refusal (Author, 2021). Coercion stems from the consequences of anti-immigrant policies like denying undocumented immigrants healthcare, higher education and drivers licenses within a militarized anti-immigration setting where people exist under fear and surveillance. Refusal is a rejection of these oppressive policies and actions. Thereby, immigrants return as a way to exert their agency and live on their own terms.

Methods & Sources: This paper zooms into a subset of larger study in three communities and an elementary, secondary and tertiary school via two multimodal approaches to sharing the stories of transborder students and families between the U.S. and Mexico: film and photography. Documentary film allowed people's knowledge and experiences to be expressed in their own voices and contexts (Borish et al., 2021). Next, black and white photography taken over a six-year period documented the lives of the families over that time and countries in ways that words could not fully capture. The images had the power to ‘“speak back’ to dominant or stereotypical images…[and] redirect, contest and unlock the gaze” (Lutrell, 2010, p. 224).

Findings: These multimodal approaches helped to answer the research question: “How do US-born or raised children and youth in Mexico adapt to their border crossing experiences?”. Holistically, the film and photography show that students and families want to be seen, even as they simultaneously feel pride and shame in their border crossing experiences. Additionally, when they are able to see how people react to their role in film and in photography, they feel empowered to continue to share their experiences and serve as advocates for people in similar situations.

Significance: There is an urgent need to create humane policies and equitable pedagogical practices for the nine million Mexican-origin “students we share” in Pre-K-12 schools between the US and Mexico. Of those, two million have lived in both Mexico and the US and 600,000 are US citizens in Mexican schools (Gándara & Jensen, 2021). Taking a multimodal approach to research that delves into the realities of transborder students and families is a way to ensure their stories, perspectives, and input are taken into account when important decisions are made about their lives across and within borders.

Author

• Tatyana Kleyn, City College of New York - CUNY