Motherhood, Migration and Methodology: Giving Voice to the Other

Authors

Ruth DeSouza, Unitec New ZealandFollow

Abstract

This paper discusses the need for multi-cultural methodologies that develop knowledge about the maternity experience of migrant women and that are attuned to women’s maternity-related requirements under multi-cultural conditions. Little is known about the transition to parenthood for mothers in a new country, particularly when the country is New Zealand. This paper will challenge the positivist hegemony of previously completed research on migrant women by reflecting on my own experience as a researcher grounded in a broadly-based, pluralistic set of critical epistemologies that allowed me to uncover the issues and contexts that impacted on the experience of migrant women. It concludes by proposing that, where research occurs with minority groups, multiple research strategies are incorporated in order to prevent the reproduction of deficiency discourses.

Keywords

Migration, Motherhood, Methodology, Reflexivity, Methodological Pluralism, Goa (India) and New Zealand

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge that an earlier version of this paper was presented at the Research: Contributing to the Future of Nursing Conference, Hamilton, New Zealand, NZNO. She would also like to acknowledge her husband, Andy Williamson and the reviewers of this article.

Publication Date

9-1-2004

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2004.1919

Recommended APA Citation

DeSouza, R. (2004). Motherhood, Migration and Methodology: Giving Voice to the Other. The Qualitative Report, 9(3), 463-482. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2004.1919