Multilingual Biographical Interviews With Migrated Young People: Translation Practices, Power Relations, and Epistemic Equality

Susanne Siebholz and Luisa Burgmer
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Susanne Siebholz: Faculty of Humanities, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
Luisa Burgmer: Faculty of Humanities, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: Global migration and the resulting multilingual societies call for in‐depth reflection in social science research. In particular, multilingual and interpreter‐facilitated interviews raise methodological questions regarding translation practices and research interactions. This article explores the methodological implications of multilingualism in interview‐based research, with a focus on power relations. It is based on empirical data from a recent study of migrated youth in state care. In this study, a multi‐perspective research approach is adopted, with narrative‐biographical interviews serving as one of the research methods. This method positions participants as experts in their own life experiences, with the potential to contrast the multiple societal deficit ascriptions that migrant youth in state care experience in everyday life at the intersection of social categories. To observe and understand the social practices that emerge from the study’s design, the article analyses the first interview undertaken. The findings indicate how the different roles and relations of power, dependency, and agency were exercised in the analysed case, from initial access to the field and contact with the interviewee, to the interview situation itself. The results emphasise the importance of researchers engaging in ongoing, iterative reflexivity throughout the multilingual research process, particularly when working with participants in marginalised social positions. The article concludes with a call for systematic empirical engagement with multilingual research practices and deeper methodological sensitivity to the complexities of language, power, and epistemic equality in qualitative research.

Keywords: biography; epistemic equality; interview; migration; multilingual; narration; power; translation; youth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10967

DOI: 10.17645/si.10967

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