For Social Science Professionals
At Borderlines, our goal is to document the experiences of migrants and related communities in Finland, with an emphasis on ethical care and evisibility. Since up till now we have only been collecting qualitative data through chatting, we will only describe this route. Here is how we collect and analyze the data from our interviewees
1. Recruiting Participants
- Participants are recruited through networks or a trusted gatekeeper who knows many community members and asks who would like to participate.
- Interviewees sign a consent form before participating. They can request that their information be deleted at any time.
- To enhance agency, we explain the process clearly and after analysis, we show participants how we intend to use their quotes and the whole text in order to get feedback to work on before posting. We approach participants as co-writers of our posts: they can ask us to change, remove, or add their quotes, or correct how we explained them.
2. Collecting Stories
For collecting chat data we use the guidelines written by Lannutti, 2017
- Interviews are conducted as semi-structured or free-form chats on WhatsApp or Telegram during arranged time periods.
- The chat data is copied into a secure document. At this stage, information is anonymized if requested by the participant.
- When relevant, we may also include journalistic interviews participants have already given.
Please read the section “Interviews” above to get a detailed framework on data collection.
3. Translation
- Interviews in different languages are translated into English using automatic translation.
- This allows us to work consistently across languages while preserving the content of participants’ stories.
4. Familiarization, coding, and thematic analysis
For thematic analysis we use guidelines from Braun, V. & Clarke, V., 2024.
We use a thematic analysis approach, which involves:
- Coding: identifying significant topics in the text and assigning labels (codes) to them
- Theme development: grouping codes into broader themes that capture shared patterns and experiences
- Interpretation: linking themes to scientific, policy, and social contexts to explain the structural issues revealed by participants’ stories.
5. Social harm framework
In identifying and interpreting harms, we draw on a zemiological framework described in Canning, & Tombs, 2021, which focuses on social harms caused by policies, institutions, and structural inequalities rather than only individual actions. This helps us highlight systemic issues experienced by migrants and marginalized communities and give them language for the criticisms of social structures.
Canning, 2020 is an example of how social harms are identified and explained in the migration context. Borderlines follows a similar logic of explaining social harms.
Ethical and activist considerations
- Our primary goal is not academic recognition. Instead, we aim to bring visibility and preserve agency of marginalized people.
- Transparency, participant safety, and careful documentation gare important elements of our work.
- This process ensures that our findings reflect participants’ real experiences while maintaining credibility, consistency, and ethical responsibility.