La acción política como espacio de relación

Semi-structured in-depth interviews with YMS migrants living in London were conducted to understand their motivations and experiences of being part of the scheme, where I also aimed to ascertain the relevance of gender norms and identities within mobility processes. The twenty-nine interviews took place over 8 months and all were interviewed once. Out of the 29 respondents, 27 of them had always intended to live in London and two had lived elsewhere before moving to London. Two of the participants expressed the possibility of leaving for their home countries without completing the visa period, while the remainder were hoping to complete the full two years. One of the participants had shifted to another visa category (spousal visa), although if she had not done so she would still be within the visa period of her initial YMS visa.

The interviews, almost 56 hours in total, were all taped using a digital voice recorder except for one male participant, who refused permission (the ‘transcript’ of this interview is largely drawn from quick notes that I made during and after). Interviews generally lasted between one and a half to two hours and involved an enormous amount of attention from both researcher and participant. The interview process with participants from East Asia revealed the challenges in using English to converse with participants whose first language is not English. I found myself explaining or describing the questions a lot more than I would with a person who is a native English speaker. I say this as a non-native English speaker, who was exposed to a culture of schooling which held English language as first language. This means that I think in two languages (English and Malayalam), while English proficiency is still a sub-standard player to Malayalam (my mother tongue). Having said that, a common point of conversation between me and my East Asian participants after the interviews included their question to me – ‘how do you speak such good English?’, which I read as a relative compliment. Clearly, non-native English contexts can themselves be highly diverse and mediate the interview process.

Drawing from feminist methodologies that seek to minimise asymmetrical power relations between the interviewer and interviewee (Hesse-Biber, 2014; Oakley, 1981), I answered participants’ queries – mostly about my migrant story in the UK – and used a conversational approach, to ‘increase reciprocity and rapport in the interview process, thus breaking down the notions of power and authority invested in the role of the researcher’ (Hesse-Biber, 2014: 199). Despite the interviewing usually sticking to my

loose interview guide, different nationality and cultural contexts often meant diverse experiences, such that the idea of ‘interviews as conversations’(Burgess, 2006 [1984]: 83) was particularly useful. This approach also gave me insights into participants’ lives in the ‘mobile’ field, where further face-to-face interactions were limited. I realised after I left the field that several factors came to bear on the interview situation. For example, when I met participants after their work they were generally exhausted, however still happy to share their ideas and thoughts. I noticed that all the female participants from Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong were particularly eager to tell me their experiences, often also enquiring about me and my migrant story; perhaps they were keen to promote awareness of the opportunities for young women like them.

Interviews were semi-structured, mostly carried out at the weekend when participants were off work, or sometimes after their work in the evenings, and generally held in public places, including British Library Café, Café Nero, Costa Coffee and Starbucks (two interviews were held at the interviewees’ work-place cafes after they finished work). I had previously agreed with my supervisors to try and conduct interviews in public places, to ensure my safety as a researcher. However, two interviews were held at a participant’s home, where one of them was temporarily living with the other. This was mainly agreed for the convenience of the participants, and gave me some crucial insights into their housing arrangements. One interview was held over skype for the convenience of the participant, who was a freelance market researcher who worked from home; I could classify this meeting as symptomatic of a ‘mobile’ field that criss-crosses work, leisure and virtual mobilities. I transcribed the interviews as soon as possible, incorporating pauses and breaks while I remembered the place and flavour of every interview from my memory and my field notes. Transcribing was difficult at times due to unfamiliar accents. For example, there was a distinct Australian accent and I struggled to make sense of some of the words used. This was especially the case when the participant mentioned ‘heaps’ and all I could hear for a long time was ‘apes’! Similar unfamiliarity with accents also happened in the case of New Zealanders. It was easier for me to understand the Canadian accent due to the close resemblance to American English (I grew up watching American sitcoms). East Asian participants’ accents were also closer to American English than British English.