The term ‘research process’ means the overall structuring of the research study, which started in 2012 by defining the research problem. Five peer-reviewed articles have been written on the research. All the studies described in the articles followed the process in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Process of the article
Define
research problem
Literature
Review Design
research
Analyse data Draft Article Submit for publication
Peer- reviewed
process Publish Article Source: own elaboration
When all the articles had been published, the study lacked some of the
further data, the study focused on a few questions during the synthesis part and conducted some in-depth interviews of the target group. Conversely, to map the theoretical and philosophical assumptions, it is essential to assess the empirical findings. Since the research synthesis section is highly theoretical, it demands some more empirical findings in order to fully illuminate the research questions.
Therefore, the author has used some materials from other relevant studies, also by the author, undertaken for other articles that are not included in this thesis.
The author’s goal was to present all the materials in an easy-to-read style with plenty of empirical examples to clarify the concepts. Therefore, according to the following sequence the author: 1) illustrates some philosophical assumptions for a better understanding the situation of the target group, 2) develops the empirical section by answering research questions, 3) analyses the findings and empirical answers from several theoretical perspectives to justify the hypothesis, and 4) draws implications for theories. It is an exploratory research, since it has focused on a particular phenomenon, namely the problem of the behaviour of immigrants during the integration process in a pre-structured society. This problem necessitates a quick change by the host society in order to generate some novel ideas for integrating new attitudes and perspectives. The prime idea of the later explanatory research might not be finding very accurate solutions to the problems, but understanding the problem and scoping out the nature and extent of the problem serve as useful material for more in-depth research (Bhattacherjee 2012). Explanatory research requires some concepts associated with the objects, events or people of the research. Sometimes the objects are the specific characteristics or behaviour of persons. Some explanatory research studies need to borrow some concepts from other disciplines to better explain the phenomenon of interest (Bhattacherjee 2012). A unique characteristic of comprehensive analysis is analysing a specific set of concepts or the relationship between the set of concepts, which can support the content of experiences that can be either ‘close to’ or ‘far away’ from each other. Theories explain social or natural phenomena. The essential challenges of this dissertation were to build more comprehensive theories to better explain the integration phenomenon.
The theories are discussed based on the empirical observations, and logical testing of the theories can anticipate the outcomes of the research. Most of the theories used in this study have not been applied in immigration studies before; therefore, some of the existing theories discussed in the dissertation are in entirely new contexts for immigration phenomena, and this study uses these theories when examining the structural similarities between these two contexts.
It is theorising in a creative and deductive way.
Figure 2: Research Process
Theory
bservation
Theory Testing oncept Analysing
Source: own elaboration
2.3. Methods
Interviewing is a very common method in social science research, and it is a very fruitful method for qualitative research. The study followed all three types of interviews: unstructured, semi-structured and structured. There were a total of N=99 immigrants and N=6 locals, N=81 in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland, and 18 immigrants and one local social entrepreneur in other Arctic countries (shown in Map 2), and 5 owners of social enterprises in Aberdeen, Scotland.
The climate of Aberdeen has been recognised as an arctic climate, therefore Aberdeen was included. Each of the articles follow different methods. The first two articles are literature reviews and the last three articles are based on interviews, focus group interviews and sample observing using ethnographic observation. Interviewing informants is an effective method of social science, though the process of selecting interview candidates is challenging. The selection of informants was achieved partly through the snowball method and partly by using a local newspaper and other social media.
Table 1: Methods used in the articles
Dissertation theme Method Year of data
collection Categories of
Article II: Life as an Immigrant
in Rovaniemi Literature review and
ethnographic observation 2012 Various categories:
(N=10; M:7, F:3) 2016-2017 refugees and jobseekers Source: own elaboration
Articles I and II followed literature review examples. They essentially produce a summary of the main studies and research related to the study topic. It was relevant to the research question and helped to contextualise and frame the research work. It also produced a large amount of necessary background research to support the whole study. Through the literature review, the dissertation observed the real problem of the topic initially. These two articles also helped greatly in the documentation and analysis of the final research questions. This explorative literature review helped model new theories for the study. These two articles demonstrated the gap in the literature, pointed to the significance of
the problem and showed what needs to be done in the field of similar research (Baker 2016).
Article III is based on semi-structured interviews; however the location selection was not that wise for this interview. Since the interviews were conducted in different cafés, restaurants and other public places, the interviews were a two-way dialogue, not only interrogation. The number of interviewees was N=18 and the interviews were conducted in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The interviews were unstructured but sometimes semi-structured as well. There were limitations in conducting the interviews in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I did not have enough time to inform my interviewees in advance, since I visited there for only a short period of time and settled interviews on the spot. In Sweden, I found my participants through my co-ethnic network, and in Aarhus and Oslo, I targeted an immigrant restaurant and approached patrons about my intentions. To some extent, setting up the interview for the following day was more informative than an instant interview. Although my questions were ready beforehand, my interviewees were not prepared in advance, thus they did not have enough time to anticipate the issues and it could be that not all thoughts were conveyed by the informants and they neglected to mention things during instant interviews. My non-western appearance and ethnic origin helped me in interviewing non-western immigrants. My intercultural soft skills created a plausible relationship to extract sensitive and sometimes troubled information from respondents. The duration of the interviews varied between 1-2 hours.
Sometimes, they also offered me some snacks and coffee, since they considered me one of them. This study relied on participants’ perceptions and opinions. I utilised a thematic analysis along with a qualitative analytic method in analysing the data. My thematic analysis was very much related to an individual’s experiences, views and perceptions. To some extent, it was hard for me to keep the discussion concentrated on the theme of the interview. I tried to find some commonalities in the data by examining all my notes that were written on paper, and simultaneously coding and interpreting the interview notes also kept me concentrated and on the right track.
For Article IV, we organised a semi-structured interview among a focus group, but the in-depth interview for immigrant entrepreneurs and former entrepreneurs was unstructured. The in-depth interview was simply a conversation with the interviewees rather than a formal interview. In order to gain additional information, the dissertation made more in-depth interviews that were semi-structured. The interviews were conducted mostly face-to-face, since it is the best way for the reporting. One in-depth interview was made over the phone. The number of focus group interviewees was N=48 and
(Kemi-Tornio and Rovaniemi). I did not expect participation from a large number of interested people in our focus group interview. Usually, 10 people is enough for a focus group interview, but there were 23 respondents in one focus group, making it somewhat challenging to attend to everyone within 2-3 hours, which was a limitation of this part of the study. The participants were immigrant youth, immigrant women aged 18-49 and immigrant entrepreneurs, both male and female, aged 30-50. The participants originated from Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Thailand, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Algeria, Nigeria, Mexico, Israel, Jordan, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, France, China, Somalia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Turkey. In this part of my study, my own experiences also helped greatly in analysing the data, since I was also an entrepreneur for a few years in Rovaniemi, and my own experience was a support in the coding and interpretation phases of the interview notes. My co-ethnic network also supported me in finding my respondents. Many other different issues were discussed during the interviews, though I focused solely on the thematic analysis of the content. Conventional and directed (Hsieh &
Shannon 2005) content analysis facilitated the study.
Article V was planned as a semi-structured interview of the focus groups.
The dissertation followed a combination method of participant observation and naturalistic observation of N=18. The data were collected in Rovaniemi.
Through participant observation, the author observed events, meetings of participants and the planning of a pop-up social enterprise. The participants were well-informed beforehand about the observation and they participated in the sampling process willingly. Participant observation is a method of ethnographic research. This research produced rich materials, collected plentiful quality data that was sufficient for interpretation and it facilitated the development of social enterprise research questions. The whole ethnographic research process took almost one year. It is also an action research with two particular case studies for understanding the phenomenon of social enterprise in Rovaniemi. The case studies rely on multiple data collection techniques (Yin 1994) such as documentation, archival records, participant and naturalistic observation and physical artefacts (Iacono et al. 2009). Long-term unemployed immigrants are usually hard-to-reach populations. After the first ‘pop-up’ event, which was the first form of network sampling, the participants involved utilised their personal networks and contacts, which indeed supported our second set of ‘pop-up’
events. The initial set of participants served as seeds that expanded and recruited their peers for the second event. Respondent-driven sampling (Heckathorn &
Cameron 2017) was considered a form of persuasive sampling in this part of the study.
As a case study, it was important to design and plan the study. Theoretical models of social enterprises i.e. in Aberdeen, Scotland and Gothenburg, Sweden have been demonstrated among the target group in practice during our case study to examine the credible findings and evidence-rich material was collected regarding the development policies on social enterprise by interviewing owners of 5 social enterprises in Aberdeen and one in Gothenburg. These best practices from Aberdeen and Sweden facilitated our research in Rovaniemi. Finding respondents in Aberdeen was a great challenge for me, so I conducted a literature review on Social enterprises in Aberdeen and found some good models of practices. According to those models, I chose 5 social enterprises that had solid reputations and good practices. I communicated with them face-to-face and in a fixed interview time; however, respondent-driven sampling provided the link to maintaining the research track. Interviews were conducted on the premises of the social enterprises. The interviews were unstructured, but their duration was 1-2 hours. The directed approach of content analysis of the interview data supported this part of this dissertation, which started with a thematic theory or significant guidance for coding the research findings initially.
It has been similarly a type of participatory action research. After attempting the first case, the participants received some knowledge for empowering their experiences in the second case, which subsequently fostered a sense of self-instigation and thereby created an improved professional culture amongst the participants. Therefore, in the second focus group meeting, the participants (N=18) were more relaxed and open than in the first focus group that was organised after the first case study. After the first case, the participants identified the problems of operating a Social Enterprise/Co-operative, evaluated all the action consequences and considered alternative aspects, implementing those during the second case studies. The outcomes varied, which produced a lot research data for the dissertation and eased the study process in finding credible results.
The respondents of the study who participated in the first sampling event were of varying gender and ages – one was under 25, one was between 25-29 years, three were between 30-54, and three were over 54 years.
Our second sampling event was also organised with nine respondents from Russia, Estonia and Finland. One of them was between ages 25-29, five of them were between 30-54, and three were over 54 years old. Some asylum seekers also took part in this sampling event but are not counted as respondents of the study.
However, they supported the sampling group in their activities.
At the end of the study, I followed a self-interview method, which provided an additional tool kit to reinforce the whole dissertation. To strengthen some parts of the study and my synthesis, I conducted some semi-structured supplementary interviews with interested informants. In this phase, I also used samples found via my co-ethnic network. The immigrants who were interviewed were from Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Palestine. Some of my ethnographic observations began at the beginning of 2015. My ethnic background assisted me in collecting some materials and data from direct engagement with various groups of immigrants, for example through a variety of informal and unstructured conversations, by attending their community meetings, asking about individual family narratives, private family visits and being involved with their daily activities, and all of these activities indeed improved the synthesis of my dissertation. I have used those data in my content analysis. I have used those various datasets to sustain my theoretical argument in the synthesis part of the study.