Migrants’ lives matter: biographical research, recognition and social participation

Abstract

Since the beginning of qualitative sociology migrations have been central to the development of biographical research. Migrant communities have interested the founders of the Chicago School, also concerned by questions of isolation and prejudice among ethnic and cultural minorities. Later socio anthropological research has equally given privilege to the study of biographies of migrants, providing a paradigm shift from national understandings of migrations to transnational ones. But the analysis of the mutual effects happening between researchers and participants in such a relational kind of work asks for more attention. Drawing from empirical work conducted with migrants and refugees in Portugal, this paper proposes to deepen such analysis. Focus is brought to the subjective dimensions of the encounter happening between the different subject positions at play. It implies the incorporation of the awareness of structural inequity in the development of methodological tools capable of listening to the truth of each participant. Guided by the search for a theoretical–practical coherence, this essay proposes an analysis of the specific degrees of recognition provided by biographical research among migrants and refugees, in dialogue with the philosophical contributions of Axel Honneth and Richard Kearney. The empirical scope of this interdisciplinary proposition resonates with our public and civic research position defending that ‘Migrants’ Lives Matter’.