Data collection for a doctoral study among natives living abroad: revisiting the challenges and strategies undertaken

MD. Mohsin Reza (), Thirunaukarasu Subramaniam () and M. Rezaul Islam ()
Additional contact information
MD. Mohsin Reza: University of Malaya
Thirunaukarasu Subramaniam: University of Malaya
M. Rezaul Islam: University of Dhaka

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, 2022, vol. 56, issue 4, No 43, 2783-2802

Abstract: Abstract This paper is based on the first author’s PhD research data collection experiences conducted with his country people who work and live as migrant workers in the production sector in Malaysia. The data collection process is a crucial component in doctoral studies as there is a need to ensure that the data collected is representative, reliable and unbiased. The main objective of this PhD data collection was to understand the economic and social well-being of the migrant workers in the light of the economic and social well-being approaches. In exploring those issues, there were many challenges that the first author faced during data collection (between October 2016 and April 2017). This paper divulges these practical experiences and limitations of this data collection. The notable challenges and limitations were difficult to identify study locations and undocumented migrant workers, time constraint, the difficulty of sampling from a large number of the estimated population, matter of confidentiality and rapport building, lack of cooperation, high field cost, the possibility of false data, language barrier and scared of harassment and personal protection. In addition, the paper discusses the strategies undertaken for better capture of the economic and social well-being. The experiences learnt from this data collection process can be a valuable guideline for the researchers who intend to do further research in a similar context.

Keywords: Data collection; Doctoral study; Natives living abroad; Migrant workers; Mixed-method; Challenges; Strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-021-01244-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:56:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11135-021-01244-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11135-021-01244-1

Access Statistics for this article

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology is currently edited by Vittorio Capecchi

More articles in Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().