Uncharted Terrains: New Directions in Border Research Methodology, Ethics, and Practice

Chapter Nine. Reflections on Methodological Challenges in a Study of Immigrant Women and Reproductive Health in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region

184 chapter nine Reflections on Methodological Challenges in a Study of Immigrant Women and Reproductive Health in the U.S.–Mexico Border Region Anna Ochoa O’Leary, Gloria Ciria Valdez-Gardea, and Azucena Sánchez Introduction In this chapter, we reflect on the methodological challenges arising from research conducted in the U.S.–Mexico border region in 2008–2009.1 In particular, these emerge from the increased vulnerability of both migrant and immigrant women whose limited access to health care in transit and settlement communities subject them to numerous risks. Such trends force researchers to be ever more cognizant of the relationship between social scientists and vulnerable research participants (Bilger and Van Liempt 2009). This is especially true when gathering data about sensitive topics that may include legal status, clandestine activity, intimate partner relations , and sexually transmitted diseases (see also Careaga, this volume). To be sure, within the research process even a routine or in-depth analysis of the methodological issues—let alone a robust reflection of methodology —often remains peripheral and outside our “field of vision” (Sprague 2005). Perhaps, as Sprague suggests, critical reflection on the methods we use is uninspiring, or worse yet, intimidating. It goes without saying that a reflection on this process should be considered along with the analyses of the data and the formal presentation of results. In the case of our research, Immigrant Women and Reproductive Health • 185 we address several issues emerging from context rife with apprehension among migrant and immigrant populations due to environments that are notably antagonistic towards immigrants. The shift in migration patterns dominated by migrants from nontraditional sending states in an almost perpetual state of flux also complicates our ability to accurately identify the contours of researched populations (O’Leary 2012). This project was a binational study where teams of researchers addressed related questions on both the U.S. and Mexican sides of the border . Gloria Ciria Valdéz-Gardea (Colegio de Sonora, Mexico) was the co-principal investigator responsible for the research in Altar, Sonora, and Anna Ochoa O’Leary (University of Arizona) was the co-principal investigator responsible for the research in Tucson, Arizona. For the research in Altar, our discussion concentrates on the unequal distribution of resources, which contributes to the vulnerability of immigrants who find themselves insufficiently supported. In Tucson, our discussion concentrates on the challenges of participant recruitment in a state increasingly vexed by antiimmigrant measures, making migrants more fearful (O’Leary and Sanchez 2011, 2012; O’Leary 2009a). After a brief summary of the research, we will proceed to discuss the following eight methodological issues that were resolved for completing research: Recruitment in Altar Tucson Recruitment Procedures Fieldwork Challenges Contending with the Political Climate in Arizona Ascertaining Immigration Status Mitigating Sample Bias Locating Participants “Safe Place” Bias versus Improved Respondent Response Rates Brief Summary of the Research The research project, “A Multidisciplinary Binational Study of Migrant Women in the Context of a U.S.–Mexico Border Reproductive Health Care Continuum,” was designed to document and analyze the reproductive health care strategies of im/migrant women, and their access to reproductive health care services.2 The reproductive health-care strategies that im/migrant women adopt are analyzed in the context of increased exposure to various types of risks that come with the migratory process, 186 • Fieldwork among Entrapped Communities including the risk of death (Cornelius 2001; O’Leary 2008; Goldsmith et al. 2006); sexual assault (Falcon 2001); and illness when health care services in settlement communities are restricted, denied, or underutilized (see for example Fuentes-Afflick, Korenbrot, and Greene 1995; Guendelman , Thornton, Gould, and Hosang 2005; Ojeda 2006). Such services are critical to women’s health and safety in the course of migration, and ultimately, for settlement in destination communities. In this way, the research reflects the use of a feminist methodology and approach as gender is central to our attempt to critically understand how social, economic, and political systems intersect with inequality (Sprague 2005). In line with this analytical approach, a theoretical concept, the “reproductive health care continuum,” was developed for the research. The “continuum” is conceived as the repertoire of reproductive health-care strategies and the associated knowledge that immigrant women draw upon in the context of their plans to migrate northward. The continuum develops in response to conditions in destination communities where other problems may arise, such as scarce resources, social hostilities, and/or restrictive policies (Wilson and McQuiston...