Making sense of the shifting ‘field’: ethical and practical considerations in researching life after immigration detention

This chapter offers a critical discussion of, and reflection upon, some of the challenges and opportunities of doing community-based and remote (i.e., via telephone and new media) follow-up research as part of a larger study of immigration detention and deportation in the United Kingdom (UK). I draw on my experiences of conducting follow-up research with women and men that I first met during fieldwork in four immigration removal centres in the UK and who were subsequently released, either into the British community or returned to another country. The chapter illustrates the challenges of building―and then maintaining―such relationships, including balancing the research aims with ethical concerns, logistical challenges, and the ‘intimacies’ that frequently accompany these interpersonal relationships, navigating across various gender, racial, cultural, religious, national, and linguistic differences. I offer critical consideration of the ‘messiness’ of such research and encourage ongoing dialogue and discussion of these issues which inhere in the process of doing social science research