Excercise Presentation Advanced Research Methods Ombeni Mwanga & Johanna Myllyniemi

Observation excercise – At the Information Desk of the Library Ombeni was paying more attention to the environment (automatic machine for book returning, signboards) Paid attention to mother’s and children’s accessibility Johanna was describing more what was happening at the reception desk Both noticed there were many young people, but Johanna also mentions middle-aged. No senior people whatsoever Ombeni was noticing the behavior of the people (standing in distances, not talking to each other). Has her previous picture of people’s behavior in Finland affected this? Johanna did not pay attention to it. Maybe it was just the normal thing for her

Interview excercise – the main issues The interviewee was an asylum seeker from Mosul, Iraq He has been in Jyväskylä for six months The interview was done in a conducive environment as the interviewee was free to share his ideas As a foreigner he has experienced negative attitudes from some people in Jyväskylä as the refugees are easily identified due to their appearances ”black hair” and walking in groups – We deduce dthat these can be due to the presence of anti- asylum seekers He also criticized the media for their misrepresentation; the mistakes of some few asylum seekers are generalized to make all of them look bad – This can be the reason for negative attitudes toward refugees

He explained that some of the asylum seekers are not coming from the dangerous war zones but are from the South of Iraq, unlike him who comes from the more dangerous North. So some of them only came to have fun or have a better life in Finland despite having safety in their country. – These could be the trouble makers but that is not what he stated The interviewee has got a lot of friends in Jyväskylä and finds the people helpful in general He is the first one in his camp to obtain his asylum He has found volunteer work in a laboratory

Interview – retrospect It would be interesting to do more research about the picture that refugees have about the Finnish media and culture Would not reformulate any questions but could add more concerning other kinds of attitudes than simply positive/negative towards refugees For example meaning of work

Interview English is not the first language for the interviewee as well the interviewers so there were moments to clarify and improvise some of the questions The interview differed slightly from the interaction before and after it Possibly because we were recording the interview and we were trying to rush to cope with the ”15 min” time The interview proceeded according to the shift with additional questions presented in between the original questions

Interview – roles One was the main interviewer and other was recording and asking additional questions to clarify some things The interviewers were quite self-assured but were sometimes confused with the questions These moments got sorted out by thinking and reformulating, and the interviewee was also asking if he didn’t understand something The interview situation itself was the influencing issue, the participants were all in equal power positions