ABSTRACT
Regardless of the extensive critique of methodological nationalism in the social sciences (see e.g., Amelina et al. 2012; Beck 2000a; Beck 2000b; Chernilo 2006; Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002), conducting empirical research in a framework where the nation-state is self-evidently present and the taken-for-granted perspective and starting point, continues to be a common practice. Methodological nationalism is particularly apparent and especially problematic in migration research, in which research participants are typically assigned a primary subjectivity based upon ‘migrancy’ (see Näre 2013, 2014). By designating migrancy as the key meaningful category framing the research and assuming that migrancy is the main characteristic of the research subjects, we might easily overlook other subjectivities that may be more meaningful to the research participants. Migrants are thus presented as ‘others’, strangers who do not share a ‘common culture’ with the national groups into which they migrate (see e.g., Schuetz 1944).
