Interview Reflections: A First Generation Migrant Indian Woman Researcher Interviewing a First Generation Migrant Indian Man

Abstract

The purpose of this research note is to share and discuss my experience of interviewing a first generation migrant Indian man. The note demonstrates how an amalgamation of English language proficiency and assumed social class, educational status, and gender effected the power relations in an interview, and thus the data collected. It suggests how the power relation brought into play due to differences in English language proficiency between the participant and the researcher/interviewer can be reduced, if not eliminated.

Keywords:

• English language
• Indian
• interview
• gender
• social class
• research note

Notes

The adjective first generation migrant means that the person had his primary and secondary socialisation in another country, i.e. India in this case.

It is important to note that this is an experience of interviewing one Indian man, and the experience will not necessarily generalise to other migrant Indian different gender dyads.

Cross-over is basically a process of stress and strain transfer between the partners (Westman, 2001).

The excerpts are from a pilot study interview conducted with a man whose wife was brought up in England and is thus a second generation Indian. He had migrated from rural India after marriage, and had completed his university education prior to migration.

All participants were given similar pre-interview information as would be expected from any ethically sound research project.