Research Guided by Gaps in Understanding: Multilingual Qualitative Research in Translations

Due to its very subject matter, research on transnational migration inevitably involves multiple languages. As a result, such research cannot be reduced to research where the researcher’s first language is English, but the interviewees’ first language is not; it needs to be expanded to interviews where the researcher and the interviewee speak the same language. Even then, however, their (class, race, gender) background may become an obstacle to understanding each other. In my research project on family life worlds under Jordanian citizenship law, I conducted semi‐structured interviews in Arabic without an interpreter. Arabic was the first language of my interviewees, but my third foreign language, which I speak and understand well, but not perfectly. This special interview situation seemed challenging and was initially due to a lack of financial resources for interpreters, which is often recommended (van Nes et al., 2010). In the course of my research, conducting interviews without an interpreter proved to be a helpful approach in order to take into account the co‐constitutive process of reality generation in qualitative research (Finlay, 2002). Grounded in feminist and intersectional methodologies, I developed a reflexive approach on how to deal with languages, (a lack of) understanding, and the corresponding power hierarchies in research processes. I argue that the balance of power between researchers and interviewees is changed by the fact that the interviewee is in a linguistically more capable position and thus may develop a different perception of his or her own agency. I propose epistemologically that an interview outside the interviewer’s first language can be a constant reminder of gaps in understanding and the different realities of the interviewer and the interviewee in the subsequent transcription, translation, and analysis steps (Larkin et al., 2007).