The Difficulties of a Minority Researcher in Minority Communities

A minority researcher is not immune to various problems in approaching minority communities. This paper examines some of the problems encountered by a Japanese researcher in Japanese communities and in Mennonite communities in California and Ontario, Canada. Emphasis is placed on the fluctuation of social distance between the minority researcher and the community in the course of research. This fluctuation is partially due to the status of the researcher as insider or outsider in relationship to the community.