Between Data and Dialogue: A Biographical Approach to Researching Transnational Families
Between Data and Dialogue: A Biographical Approach to Researching Transnational Families

Summary/Abstract: This paper reflects on both the possibilities and the limits of using biographical research to study transnational families as dynamic and relational social formations. The analysis is grounded in two qualitative research projects conducted among Albanian migrants from Albania and Kosovo living in Greece, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States between 2014–2016 and 2023–2024. Drawing on their life stories, it examines how Albanian migrants narrate family relations, care practices, and sense of belonging across time and space. Methodologically, the research combines in-depth life-history interviews with visual elicitation, participant observation, and multi-sited fieldwork. This design makes it possible to follow family trajectories across national contexts and different life phases, and to capture the spatial and temporal dynamics that characterise transnational family life. More than just a data-collection technique, the biographical approach opened a dialogical research space between researchers and participants, particularly around topics such as transnational care, family separation, uncertainty, and dual belonging. The paper also reflects on how global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, political tensions, and mobility restrictions, shaped research conditions and raised ethical challenges related to power relations, emotional vulnerability, and researcher–participant proximity. By foregrounding these methodological and ethical issues, the paper contributes to ongoing methodological debates in transnational family research.

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