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Time lines in autobiographical migration research: Lessons from an Afghan case study

Marieke van Houte (University of Oxford)

Seminar Series

Wednesday, 20 May 2015, 1pm to 2pm

Seminar Room 2, ODID, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB

Hosted by International Migration Institute

This presentation is part of the IMI Seminar Series, Trinity term 2015.

About this seminar

This paper explores the added value and challenges of the timeline as a participatory technique in autobiographical migration research, reflecting on a case study of Afghan return migrants. The paper shows that asking participants to draw a timeline representing the course of their lives complemented their life histories as it visually showed significant periods or turning points in their lives. Drawing the timeline can also give participants more control over their own story and enables a more participatory means of data collection. Last, since interviewing can have a negative connotation for people who went through asylum procedures, timeline drawing released the pressure from more verbal methods.