This Presentation Covers 3 main areas:

1. This Presentation Covers 3 main areas: Issues involving insider and outsider Managing the translators Understanding the problematic of the lack of education

2. Shared characteristics: • black • women • immigrant • all struggled to get integrated in the UK • English not my first language

3. Language/Translators • Impact: • My own lack of familiarity in Somali language • Participants not wholly fluent in English: -Could not be sure of what the interviewees had said -Could not probe into reasons for body and facial expression -or reflect on body language • A vital ingredient that could enhance a better understanding of my participants’ narration was lost

4. Power Struggle • My invisible presence • Translators ‘ presence -Concern about an over-elaboration -Findings might reflect their own perceptions rather than the narratives of the participants • Felt powerless, excluded and a loss of authority • Reflecting on my position as ‘other’

5. Using Reflexivity to deal with the emotional Effects • Perceived connection: • From same continent • Same diasporic experiences • Same immigration struggle and integration • Known most of them for least 6-7 years

6. I agree with Watts (2006) • that no research material can prepare the researcher to deal with the research reality; that the uniqueness of each project demands an individual researcher to determine how best to proceed with their research.

7. What I did • I had to develop relationship purposefully • How? This a question that I would like you to ask me and we’ll come back to that

8. Reflexivity during transcription/ analysis • Recurrent themes: lack of education has reduced them to be socially immobile: -They depended on others to attend to certain basic needs in their lives -At the time I did not understand why

9. I Noticed that: • They have been brought up to obey rules • This attitude helped to confine them(e.g.) • Hence most could not educate themselves because of demand from the welfare benefit

10. Using Field notes • My own epistemological stance as a ‘feminist standpoint’ scholar was challenged:

11. Conclusion • Interplay between emotions and reflexivity can become a useful tool that produces positive results. • It can also distract us from the very information we (researchers) have gone out to seek if they are not handled properly.

12. My theoretical baseline is drawn from Gilgun’s work on ‘Issues in qualitative research’. Jane Gilgun suggests that reflexivity helps a researcher to be aware that her presence in the research field affects the research in variety of ways and vice versa. According to her • Understanding the research topic helps researchers to declare their own biases and their personal and professional stance regarding the research topic. • Knowledge about the research setting and the experiences of participants helps researchers to empathise with their subjects. • Such understanding enables researchers to present the research findings with their audiences in mind knowing that their audience depend on their thoughts to make meaning of the participants’ experiences. • (Gilgun, 2010: 2). • In the view of Diana Watt (2007) reflexivity is a necessary ingredient that helps a researcher to glean an understanding of the research topic/material, the research subjects and the research process.