Caring for (Big) Data: An Introduction to Research Methodologies and Ethical Challenges in Digital Migration Studies

Digital technologies present new methodological and ethical challenges for migration studies: from ensuring data access in ethically viable ways to privacy protection, ensuring autonomy, and security of research participants. This Introductory chapter argues that the growing field of digital migration research requires new modes of caring for (big) data. Besides from methodological and ethical reflexivity such care work implies the establishing of analytically sustainable and viable environments for the respective data sets—from large-scale data sets (“big data”) to ethnographic materials. Further, it is argued that approaching migrants’ digital data “with care” means pursuing a critical approach to the use of big data in migration research where the data is not an unquestionable proxy for social activity but rather a complex construct of which the underlying social practices (and vulnerabilities) need to be fully understood. Finally, it is presented how the contributions of this book offer an in-depth analysis of the most crucial methodological and ethical challenges in digital migration studies and reflect on ways to move this field forward.