This presentation reports on a qualitative holistic and longitudinal bricolage research design I created for exploring the experiences and interpretations of German migrants to Australia and New Zealand throughout their migration process in the context of their life course experiences. I synergised three theoretical frameworks (salutogenic/wellness paradigm, social interactionism, and narrative theory) and three methodologies (constructionist grounded theory, ethnography, and prospective longitudinal approach). I also merged three data collection methods (episodic interviews, participant observation, and diaries), two data analysis methods (grounded theory techniques, narrative analysis), and two modes of representation (composite character, variations summary).

For two years, I accompanied 17 potential and actual German migrants with diverse personal and migration backgrounds throughout their migration journey to Australia or New Zealand. I travelled to Germany and lived with them in their homes for up to 7 days. I observed them, participated in their lives, and listened to the experiences and interpretations they shared in multiple episodic interviews. Those who migrated, I visited in Australia or New Zealand 6 and 18 months after migrating. Those who did not migrate, I visited after two years in Germany. Throughout the study, participants reported their experiences and interpretations in email or phone dairies. In total over those two years I collected 130 interview hours, 112 days of participant observation fieldnotes and nearly 1000 pages of diaries. That is 34 years worth of deep personal information. I analysed the thick data using grounded theory and narrative analysis strategies. A composite migrant narrative in the first voice and a summary of variations in the third voice represent the development of the migration idea and what happened during emigrating and immigrating.

After outlining the research design, I will firstly provide insights into how the interactions between the various methodologies and methods facilitated attracting sensitive and difficult-to-access participants and maintaining their active participation over two years, despite unusually extensive and intimate participation requirements. This research design allows entering private spaces usually reserved for insiders and accessing experiences, interpretations and actions that would normally be kept private and personal. Secondly, I will discuss how the resulting unusual extent and depth of participant engagement and disclosure created therapeutic benefits for participants. Secondly, I review some unexpected and often difficult ethical caveats that arose throughout the study as a result of the close and sustained contact with participants and of the sustained inquiry into sensitive topics, as participants went through a major life transition. I discuss how the research design enabled me to deal with these issues and to secure the physical, emotional and social well-being of participants. Lastly, I will deliberate on how this research design produced findings that are meaningful for participants and the wider migrant communities, migration scholars from different disciplines and migration policy makers and service providers alike. I will propose that an authentic research design is capable of being of service to all the groups involved in and affected by the research.