Lessons from the field: Negotiating Transnational Gender, Class and Race Positions as a Researcher Working on Andean Domestic Workers in Brussels

This paper shows the links between migrant transnationalism and the methodological debates concerning the researcher’s positionality and self-reflexivity, which have not been systematically considered in transnational studies. Drawing from my experiences as a transnational female migrant conducting fieldwork among Andean domestic workers in the city of Brussels; I intent to contribute to the conceptualization of positionality by reflecting on the effect of the researcher’s transnational gender, class and race positions in qualitative migration research.
Firstly, I address the conflicts that arose from my positioning as an “insider” that initially granted me a social proximity with my participants but later raised awareness on the existent social boundaries between us and temporarily blocked my access to the field. Secondly, I will highlight the methodological strategies through, which I worked around the existent boundaries of power relations and eventually gained access to the field, meaning: A- Constantly, engaging in self-reflexivity and questioning my “insider/outsider positioning, B- Consciously and unconsciously negotiating my class, gender and race positioning’s in order to re-draw the boundaries in the relationship between the participants and the researcher, C- Relying on my experiences as a transnational migrant in order to grasp the meaning of their practices, which guided me to avoid my spontaneous interpretations and reconsider those that my participants gave me . Finally, I will argue that both mobilizing one’s personal background and negotiating our intersecting transnational positionalities during fieldwork constitute valuable methodological resources that might lead us to do research that is produced through more symmetrical relations.