Conducting ethnographic study during the Covid19 Pandemic

Abstract

The paper is based on research that explores how restrictive and temporary migration laws following sharpened Swedish migration laws affect the lives of people seeking asylum. Based on critical race theory, this research analyses what conditions the New Law on Upper Secondary Education has created for young people categorized as “unaccompanied” and their strategies to deal with those conditions. Through ethnographic data collection methods with thirteen young people encompassed by the aforementioned law, this study focuses on their narratives and the structures that frame their choices in the Swedish context.
The data for the study was collected amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought many challenges, and adjustments had to be made. One such adjustment is moving from observations to interviews as a primary data collection method. This text describes the used methodology, the challenges that the pandemic has presented when conducting an ethnographic study, and how they have been tackled.