This paper is about fieldwork experiences and challenges encountered in a study of 30 transnational Indian women professionals in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal. A range of issues are addressed including that of being an “insider” researcher among women who belong to the same ethnic, class, gender and professional categories; the notions of “ studying sideways” and “ parachuting” within the context of the professionalization of migration; cyber-ethnography as a means of monitoring social trends within expatriate communities; and the changing boundaries of the “field” that researching migration and transnationalism entail. The paper examines these issues in relation to the increasing methodological limitations facing fieldworkers in a global society.
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