I am a sociologist currently working on immigration and national identity
in southern Europe. I have had various experiences of interviewing as part
of my fieldwork.
On one occasion, I was working on a research project in Brussels and had to
interview EU officers, DGVI in particular, reagrding environmental matters
and their work. This posed little organisational problems: I phoned them up
to arrange the interview, the interview was done in their office, it was
tape recorded and they were quite willing to talk to me and did not worry
about the recording.
My most recent and interesting experience however regards interviewing
trade union and NGO representatives as well as Ministry officers on
immigration problems and prospects in Spain ,Italy and Greece. At the first
phase of the research (spring-summer 1996), I was based in London and had
to interview people in Madrid, Rome and Athens (I am Greek).
My organisational strategy was as follows: I phoned the organisations
and/or ministry departments a month in advance telling them who I was, what
I was doing and that I would be in their city on such and such dates and
would like to interview them. Thus, we set appointments or agreed that I
would call them again closer to the date of my arrival to set the time and
date. Interviews were mostly tape recorded (I used my own portable stereo,
this was no particular problem) and on some occasions I had to take notes
because the interviewees refused to be recorded (common among ministry
employees). On few occasions, they asked me to send them a fax stating what
I had told them over the phone. On a number of cases, my initial
interviewee brought me to his/her colleague in the same organisation or
depratment or led me to contact people on other NGOs or ministries etc.
suggesting that I could tell them "I come on his/her behalf" (often more
important than one would have thought in mediterranean countries).
Security matters did not really occur to me (?!). I booked a small hotel
(Madrid and Rome) through the Spanish or Italian tourist agency or stayed
with my family (in Athens). Interviews were realised in people's offices
and, occasionally, if they proposed so in cafés nearby. OF course, for both
methodological and cultural purposes, I dressed as neutrally as I could,
neither too formal nor too informal, nothing that would strike the eye.
However, I did not face any 'difficult' situation.
I am currently conducting a follow-up of that research because there were
new immigration policies introduced in the countries I am interested in. My
strategy of contact has slightly changed in that I have tried to use some
public event or an earlier contact as the 'node' from which to make further
contacts and get to people that I would like to interview. Thus, it is more
of a 'chain' of people dealing with immigration in state or private
agencies, as professionals (e.g. lawyers) or as NGOs. In my last fieldwork
trip to Athens last May, it happened to me to meet one of my interviewees
at a conference she was giving (I decided to ask her for an interview after
listening to her), ask her for an interview, she proposed to talk
immediately in a cafeteria nearby, had no problem to be recorded or pass me
on names and phone numbers of other people that I might be interested to
interview, and eventually, I gave her a lift to her place so that she would
lend me some material to photocopy. I was quite surprised that she proposed
that I bring her to her place and to lend me her material because she did
not know me two hours earlier, but did not feel threatened or worried in
any sense of the word. Perhaps a bit embarassed. Of course, the fact that
she was a woman and also that this incident happened in Athens (where I
grew up and which I know quite well) played a role.
I would like also to hear about other researchers' experiences and
strategies to deal with interviewing.
Best,
Anna Triandafyllidou
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| Dr. Anna Triandafyllidou |
| Marie Curie Post Doctoral Fellow |
| Institute of Psychology |
| Italian National Research Council (CNR) |
| viale Marx 15, Rome 00137, Italy |
| tel. 0039 6 86090220 |
| fax 0039 6 824737 |
| e-mail: [log in to unmask] |
| |
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