Using Narrative Research to Explore the Welcoming of Newcomer Immigrants: A Methodological Reflection on a Community-Based Research Project

Authors

  • Glynis Rosamonde George University of Windsor
  • Erwin Selimos University of Alberta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-19.2.2907

Keywords:

community-based research, narrative methods, immigration, integration

Abstract

In this article, we examine the use of a narrative approach to a community-based action research project that sought to support welcoming initiatives for immigrant newcomers in a mid-size city in Ontario, Canada. We employed a place-based lens to situate the insights of community stakeholders as representatives of local organizations and government and in their everyday lives in the city. We reflect critically on whether the narrative approach we devised fostered a dialogical, collaborative, and critical orientation that action research advances, by evaluating the way the project was designed and implemented. We argue that a narrative approach provides valuable avenues to situate community-based action research in the multi-leveled context of research production and elicits the multi-layered elements of meaning-making that are often overly simplified, particularly in positivist approaches.

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Author Biographies

Glynis Rosamonde George, University of Windsor

Glynis GEORGE is associate professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology at the University of Windsor. Her research interests include culture, immigration and migration, community-based activism and qualitative methodology.

Erwin Selimos, University of Alberta

Erwin Dimitri SELIMOS is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta in Canada. His research interests include migrant inclusion, immigrant and refugee children and youth, and qualitative methodology.

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Published

2018-03-30

How to Cite

George, G. R., & Selimos, E. (2018). Using Narrative Research to Explore the Welcoming of Newcomer Immigrants: A Methodological Reflection on a Community-Based Research Project. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 19(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-19.2.2907

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Section

Single Contributions