Fieldwork 1: (Surveys)

For my piece of fieldwork I conducted a survey and sent it out to previous friends

who were/are international students as well. This allowed me to get surface level

information such as the correlation between the number of countries someone has

lived in and whether or not they had a nanny growing up. This data has allowed me

to conclude that people who have lived in more countries are more likely to have a

nanny and spend more time with them than their parents growing up. 75% of the

participants had a nanny growing up, 66.7% of those being children who lived in

more than one country. Participants who lived in five countries were also more likely

to have spent more time with nannies growing up and more of them see close friends,

partners, siblings partners and nannies to be a part of the family. With the

participants who lived in less countries not considering people who are not blood

related to be family. This supports my hypothesis that children who spent a lot of

time abroad and who spent more time with non-family members growing up have a

less traditional view on family relations. This can be linked to the idea of belonging as

children who were raised abroad are less likely to be surrounded by non-immediate

family members such as grandparents and cousins, therefore they tend to form these

family relations with those who they spend lots of time with such as friends and

nannies. There is also a correlation between the amount of countries a child has lived

in and the likelihood of them having nannies, this could be due to the international

nature of their parents' jobs.

Fieldwork 2: (Interviews)

I interviewed three different participants, two of which are children who grew up

internationally and the other was raised locally in the same area as his relatives.

Participant A was born abroad as well as living internationally for all of their lives, in
this interview I asked the participant to list all the people they view as family, along

with blood relatives she mentioned seeing her best friend of many years and au pair

as family. She spoke about how because she didn't see and speak to her relatives as

much she found comfort in people and they treated one another like family. She had

mentioned that she always had larger friend groups with one or two close friends

wherever she had moved. Participant A’s views on having a non-traditional family is

that “Surrounding yourself with a support network when you don't because you

don't have that support from your relatives is crucial to your mental health while

living abroad, and is massively beneficial to your development as a kid”. Finding

family in other people can link to the cultural idea of seeing people within your

community should be treated as family members. Participant A spent majority of her

life in Nigeria where it is courtesy to refer to adults around you as uncle/auntie and

people your age as sisters/brothers and believes this is where her perspective

towards family changed and she now sees non blood relatives to be family due to the

involvement they've had in her life. Participant B although born in their ‘home

country’ moved at the age of three and has lived in four countries since. He believes

that family is dependent on who you are around more. “Before moving I spent a lot of

time with my grandma and neighbour since my parents were at work for most of the

day so when I was in Italy (his ‘home country’) I would have said that my neighbour

was my brother and part of the family” he says that when he moved and stopped

seeing his neighbour he no longer saw them as family but they were at the time. His

views on family are that they change depending on who you are with at the time and

how they treat you. Participant C was born and raised in London. She grew up

around her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc. His beliefs on family are that

family are only the people that you are related to and no one else. “There is no one in

your life that will be as consistent as family”. She tends to keep his friends and family
separate, mentioning that you can tell your friends things you can’t tell your family

and vice versa. Although she admits to having a closer relationship with her friends

she still does not believe that family goes further than blood relation. This is

interesting because the other two participants who lived internationally have

completely different views on this which could be due to them seeking a family bond

whilst abroad and being able to form that bond with people that they are around a lot

such as friends and carers.

Appropriateness and Justification of Methods:

Due to the fact that there are very few international students in my area I will be

collecting data through digital surveys and interviews. I have previously gone to

multiple International schools in which many of my friends had been moving about

for a lot of their lives which would allow me to get a better understanding of the

effect that it has had on them. Due to the fact that many of these people are still

international I will not be able to speak to them in person. The survey allows me to

get a lot of shallow information. That is why I have paired with semi-structured

interviews. Most of these take place digitally and others to be face to face. On the

survey I will ask participants if they feel comfortable having an interview with me

and if so to contact me as the survey responses will be anonymous in order for the

participants to be as honest as they want. I plan on interviewing five people, one of

which being someone who has not previously migrated. This allows me to compare

the data. The interviews have a more in depth, emic understanding of the effect of

migration.

Ethical Considerations:
This study does not have very many ethical issues. The only one that I will be keeping

in mind is the emotional wellbeing of the participants. Although not all international

children have had bad experiences or suffered at the hands of migration there may be

certain participants who have had a more negative experience when it comes to

moving. Therefore, asking them to talk about this may cause them to relive the

trauma and hurt that came with it in the first place. Especially since one of the main

causes for hurt caused by migration is the inability to see the friends and family you

are no longer living near. Another ethical consideration that I will have to keep in

mind whilst interacting with participants is maintaining a professional relationship

as they are friends of mine, meaning their answers might be affected by the

relationship they may have with me. The way in which I will try to minimise the

effects of this is by letting all participants know that the answers they give are

anonymous and will not be discussed anywhere else except for in relation to my

study itself. Furthermore, I will make them aware that the data is being collected for

a study meaning that it is a little bit more formal than an average conversation.

Finally I will try to keep the interview related to only the study instead of having side

conversations that are irrelevant to the study. The final practical or ethical

consideration that I will need to keep in mind is the personal connection that I have

to the subject. It will be necessary for me to remove my own ideas on the subject in

order to eliminate my own bias. Additionally I will need to focus on maintaining a

professional relationship with the participants; I predict that this may be difficult for

me as a lot of the people that I will be collecting data from and interviewing will be

friends of mine making it more difficult to have a strictly professional relationship

with them. The reason why this could affect my data would be because of personal

bias towards the person and subject, as well as the fact that they may alter their

answers because I do know them. The way I will try to avoid this is by letting them
know before the interview that it is for a study and ask them to be as honest as

possible. I will also give them full anonymity and not release any personal

information.