Questionnaires

The objective data I will be collecting on top of my interviews will be from individuals who have experienced migration (students and adults). I posted on my social media and the third year group chat to collate my participants. My brother also posted so that I would have a variety of different ages. 

I chose to use open-ended questions as I wanted to give individuals the choice to write as much or as little as they wanted. I asked questions based around their experiences with moving countries, the challenges they faced, any culture shock they experienced, whether moving impacted their identity and so on. 

After collecting my data, I spent time going through each questionnaire making notes of specific topics that arose. I then made categories that I felt represented my data effectively. I then chose the topics that best reflected my statement/ questions and put the data into bar chats and pie charts so that I can analyse and compare results. The main aim of these questionnaires where to gain an understanding of other people's experiences and then, linking this with any other information I have collected including my interviews and any external recourses. 

The most common categories were:

• Language barriers
• Lack of social bubbles- friends and family
• Practical aspects- living alone, setting up banks etc
• Policies- visas, politics etc

These were all common cultural aspects that came up between the 7 individuals I collected data from. Some people found that the challenges were expected however, others felt isolated and alienated after moving. I also found that majority of participants continued traditions from their previous country and still identified as this country. One person found that migrating allowed her to find herself and her identity reinforcing that identity can change and adapt.