| Abstract: | Abstract This article links migrant transnationalism with methodological debates, in particular the researcher's positionalities and self-reflexivity, which have so far barely been addressed in transnational studies in any systematic manner. Drawing upon my fieldwork experience in a German city, ‘Schönberg’, it examines the process of boundary-drawing and re-drawing between the research participants and the researcher. While there is undeniably a clear power hierarchy between the two parties that originates in national belonging, other positionalities such as gender, ethnicity, class and stage in the life cycle may, at their intersection, work to reverse such an asymmetrical relationship. Boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ are not static and are, rather, created in a situational manner. Thus, attending to multiple positionalities in their intersection in research processes may help the researcher to re-evaluate the naturalized primacy given to national belonging. |
