Giving Back: Activist Research with Undocumented Migrants in Berlin

Abstract

In this article, I draw on my doctoral field work in Berlin (2008–2010), on the illness experiences of undocumented Latin American labor migrants, and on my work as an activist for the Berlin-based nongovernmental organization Medibüro, an anti-racist migrant health organization. I highlight how my attempts to ‘give back,’ and the various forms of engagements and commitments that resulted from it, shaped my relationships with actors in the field, the data I gathered, and the analytical framework I employed. I offer solutions on how to address these (unintended) effects of activism, and highlight the unique potential of activist research in regard to the forms of data available to the researcher and in gaining and retaining field access. By probing into some of its concrete methodological and analytical implications, I explore how to do activist research.

Keywords:

• activist anthropology
• engaged anthropology
• Germany
• Latin American migrants
• undocumented migration

Notes

1. Although the notion of reciprocity lay at the heart of my choice to become involved in political activism and health care provision, direct reciprocity with the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized is not constitutive of engaged anthropology. ‘Studying up’ (Nader 1972) can be just as much a way of conducting politically committed research as it challenges hegemonic social structures and established power relationships (cf. Heyman 2003:148).

2. Activist anthropology is also associated with ‘applied anthropology.’ For the purpose of clarity, however, I do not use the term in this article as it designates a wider range of research approaches, including anthropology as a “handmaiden” to colonialism and military domination as well as action anthropology and participatory approaches (Rylko-Bauer et al. 2006).

3. Because of this, my methodology lacks one of the fundamental aspects of activist research: the involvement of the people whose struggle we identify with in every phase of the research, including the design of the study (cf. Hale 2006:97; Martínez 2010:191).

4. In the context of health care provision for undocumented migrants in Germany, these constitute two distinct categories: the majority of activists are white middle-class Germans who engage in advocacy on behalf of migrant groups (cf. Castañeda 2013).

5. I discuss the significant limitations of this kind of humanitarian aid elsewhere (Huschke 2014a, Huschke 2014b).

6. In Germany, vaccinations for a number of infectious diseases, including, for example, tetanus, hepatitis B, and chickenpox, are recommended for children and covered by all statutory health insurances. For children without health insurance, these vaccinations are meant to be provided free of charge by public health clinics. Due to an increasing number of patients, including Eastern European migrants without health insurance, the public health clinics in Berlin faced staff and vaccine shortages during my fieldwork and some clinics turned away non-German patients.