de número decimal
10. Los decimales: más que una escritura
‘Since Thomas and Znaniecky’s [sic] classic study on migration The Polish Peasant in Europe and America…the field of migration was studied through individual narrations’ (Fischer-Rosenthal, 1995:259)
16 The findings of SOSTRIS are presented in a series of Working Papers published by the Centre for Biography in Social Policy at the University of East London (Chamberlayne & Rustin, 1999:133).
BNIM-based migration research is part of the tradition established by Thomas and Znaniecki (1958) during the early years of the 20th century. Contemporary theorists also argue for a biographical approach to the analysis of migration. Hoerder (2001), for example, calls for a life course approach to migration research, while Bauer and Thompson (2004:334) claim that migration is an area in which life history evidence has been recognised as having a special power. Breckner (2002:214), moreover, maintains that ‘it is mainly the biographical context in which the dynamics of the migratory experience develops’. The particular strength of life history methods in the study of migration perhaps lies in the way they illuminate processes of transition,17 in this case the transition between countries. As Rustin and Chamberlayne (2002:2) note, it is the experience of transition from one social milieu to another ‘that the sociobiographical method is best adapted to describe and analyse’. They go on to argue that biographical methods’ particular suitability for analysing transitions makes them a valuable means of exploring aspects of contemporary social life, which is increasingly characterised by individuals’ experience of change.
In this section, two BNIM-based migration research projects are outlined: firstly, the Italian National Report from SOSTRIS Working Paper 4 (Spano, 1999); and secondly, Firkin’s (2004) research on the narratives of professional migrants living in New Zealand. Both outlines conclude with an argument about the most important benefits of a biographical approach to each individual project. In addition to establishing a precedent for using this method in the context of migration research, these studies illustrate many of the qualities discussed in the next section: BNIM’s suitability for analysing and describing processes of change and transition, its careful attention to context, its vivid portrayal of the lived texture of individual lives, its balance of structure and agency, and finally, its flexibility. In short, these studies exemplify those characteristics of BNIM that have made it the most suitable method for my own examination of gender and migration.
The Italian National Report comprises a chapter in the SOSTRIS working paper on ethnic minorities and migrants. The first part of the report contains an analysis of 20th century migration to Italy, including the Italian legislative framework, the ethnic
17 Similarly, Rosenthal (2004:50) notes that biographical research looks at social phenomena in the process of becoming.
composition of the migrant population, the sectors of the Italian labour market in which migrants are concentrated, and the differences between migration to northern and southern Italy. After providing this social and historical background, the author presents five migrant case studies, each comprising three parts. These are: a brief chronological outline of the main events in the migrant’s life (the life in brief)18; a description of their told story (self-presentation); and an interpretation of the relationship between the two (reconstruction of the case). A comparison of the cases follows these individual analyses. The author concludes by arguing that the biographical approach is particularly suitable for migration research because the meaning of the migration experience is rendered comprehensible only in the context of the individual’s biography. A migrant, she says, ‘is an actor whose reality isn’t confined to the present but has its roots in the past…The migratory experience doesn’t obliterate all that’ (Spano, 1999:28).
Firkin’s (2004) research on professional migrants is part of a larger project designed to explore and explain the changing dynamics of the labour market within the context of broad contemporary economic changes in New Zealand. Specifically, Firkin uses BNIM to explore migrants’ experiences of non-standard work.19 He interviewed thirteen Auckland-based migrants from a range of ethnic and professional backgrounds, asking them for the stories of their migration-related career transitions. For example, he asked one of the migrants to ‘[t]ell me the story of how a (chartered accountant) from (Korea) comes to be working as a (taxi driver) in New Zealand?’ (Firkin, 2004:8). In his final report, Firkin presents twelve BNIM case studies,20 each comprising two parts: firstly, a section outlining the principal events of the migrant’s biography (the lived life); and secondly, a segment on the way each interviewee presented their story (the told story).
In order to make sense of the material in these case studies, Firkin undertook a thematic analysis of the transcripts (2004:46). He then drew on, and further developed, biographical concepts from the field of health and illness. At the end of the project, Firkin (2004:80) concludes that ‘biography becomes a way to bridge the distance between individual experience (the micro-level) and structural descriptions (the macro-
18 The actual titles as they appear in the report are presented in brackets.
19 Non-standard work can be defined as that which is no longer characterised by certain features that have been regarded as standard in terms of hours, tenure, relationships or location (Firkin et al., 2003/4:3-9).
20 One of Firkin’s interviews was undertaken with a migrant couple, rather than an individual (Firkin, 2004:41).
level) without necessarily having to lose detail and significance by favouring either extreme’. Firkin’s statement, along with Spano’s earlier comment on achieving a nuanced understanding of the migration experience through individual biographies, succinctly express two of the main reasons that I chose to use BNIM as the principal method in this thesis. In the second part of this chapter, these particular characteristics of BNIM, and others which make it the most appropriate method for this research project, are listed and discussed.