Multilingual Challenges: Empirical Social Research in Migration Societies, Transnational Spaces, and International Contexts

We live and research in societies that are characterised by multilingualism. Hence, working with a large number of research questions also implies reaching people who do not necessarily speak the official or local language(s) at a level required for study participation. Additionally, multilingualism matters when adopting a transnational research perspective as well as in international and cross-country comparative research projects; for example, collaborating with interpreters or translating questionnaires play a major role. How this multilingualism is dealt with varies in practice and depends, among other things, on the research question, research approach, the (financial) framework conditions of a project and the linguistic skills of both the researchers and those being researched. However, the literature has not yet adequately addressed several ensuing methodological challenges in the multilingual research context.

This thematic issue aims to help bridge this gap by focusing on, inter alia, the following questions: What methodological demands does multilingualism pose for researchers in both quantitative and qualitative designs? What challenges arise across the phases of the research process—from access to the field, data collection, field work and interpretation to presenting and publishing the results, as well as with regard to quality assurance and research ethics? How do power relations and language hierarchies impact the research process and, consequently, the produced knowledge?

Based on these questions, this thematic issue addresses the distinct features of empirical social research in the context of multilingual migration societies and examines approaches to managing associated difficulties and strategies for quality assurance. Contributions should provide insights into methodological approaches, interdisciplinary collaborations, research practice and therefore also emphasise the potentials of multilingual research.