Positionality as Method: Reflexive Engagement in Studying Transnational Filial Practices in Migration Research
Positionality as Method: Reflexive Engagement in Studying Transnational Filial Practices in Migration Research

Summary/Abstract: This article stems from an ongoing doctoral project that investigates how Chinese immigrants in Portugal negotiate filial piety across borders. While the substantive focus concerns intergenerational care in transnational families, the primary contribution of this paper lies in its methodological reflection on researcher positionality and reflexivity. Drawing on twenty-five in-depth, semi-structured interviews and field notes conducted during 2023, I examine how my dual positioning – as a culturally familiar “insider” sharing Confucian values, language, and migration experiences, but also a socially distant “outsider” who is not part of the Zhejiang migrant community in Portugal – shaped every stage of the research process, from participants recruitment and rapport-building to interpretation and representation. Guided by frameworks of critical reflexivity and power relations, this study views positionality not as a bias to be controlled but as an analytical resource. By documenting moments of alignment, tension, and ambiguity in insider–outsider dynamics, the paper demonstrates how methodological transparency about the researcher’s embodied and affective stance can enrich, rather than compromise, qualitative inquiry into transnational family life. As such, it responds directly to emerging calls for more nuanced, ethically grounded approaches to studying intimacy and obligations across cultural and national boundaries.

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