Researching migration and enforcement in obscured places: practical, ethical and methodological challenges to fieldwork

This paper explores practical, methodological and ethical concerns of research on and in sites where human migration is regulated. There, enforcement practices such as policing, interception and detention are transpiring, but often hidden from view. Access to data about these sites is highly restricted and partial. We draw on recent research about migration and enforcement at sea, in airport waiting zones and on islands where people are detained and have their mobility restricted. We discuss empirical issues to show the complexity of methodological decision-making amid asymmetrical power relations in distinct, yet related settings where human mobility is regulated and borders enforced. One of our aims is to question and complicate notions of vulnerability in places where people are categorized as 'vulnerable'. We argue that, despite the challenges and complexities detailed in this article, it is extremely important to do this kind of research. Conversations about this work, though difficult, are worth having and recording, so that they continue beyond these pages and researchers do not feel alone in struggling with these issues.