The data collection process Desk research

The first part of the data collection process for this research project consisted of extensive and detailed desk research. In the beginning of the research process it was from great importance to point out all of the existing legislative measures on a European level in order to have an overview of the different options and obligations that EU Member States have in connection to the provision of reception conditions to asylum seekers. Therefore, all of the relevant documents encompassing the EU asylum acquis have been thoroughly examined and discussed in the contextual chapter 2. In addition to the European legislation on asylum and refugees, it was important to get acquainted with existing international and European human and fundamental rights provisions, to no only have an insight into the obligations and rights of Member States but also to point out the rights that asylum seekers and refugees should enjoy.

After the international and European context of this thesis has been thoroughly examined and discussed, the second aspect of the desk research was an extensive investigation and exploration of the three chosen case studies, that is Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It was from great importance, to have a comprehensive overview of the history, the administrative system and most importantly the different approaches to the provision of reception conditions to asylum seekers. In this respect, the main focus of the data collection was on the national and local legislation, as well as other policy measures. Hence, for instance, the statutes and ordinances of the Länder, regional or local entities have been collected and examined.

The second step of the data collection process was an analysis of the situation in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and actually point out what approaches these countries take in providing asylum seekers with reception conditions and whether these taken actions are in fact in accordance with the existing EU asylum acquis. In a final step, it was important to assemble data that would demonstrate whether the national legislative and administrative measures and actions taken concerning the provision of adequate living conditions to asylum seekers are in compliance with cosmopolitan values. In this respect, the method of collecting data was twofold: Firstly, policy publications by the national and local governments, as well as NGO and country reports, such as National Country Reports for the three discussed countries issued by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, have been

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analysed. Furthermore, newspaper articles and media reports addressing the living conditions of asylum seekers in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have been studied.

Interviews

Once the desk research was completed, the second part of data collection consisted out of conducting a variety of interviews in order to get a better and more extensive insight into the process of the provision of the living conditions to asylum seekers and get additional and valuable details of the process that lie behind the whole reception conditions provision process. In order to gather this data, interviews were conducted with two different sets of interviewees. On the one hand, state officials and governmental bodies at municipal, local or regional level working in the field of asylum and migration have been interviewed. The purpose of this, was to gain understanding of the process itself, the different actors in the process and possible difficulties and obstacles that might arise in the process of the provision of adequate reception conditions to asylum seekers. The second group of interviewees consisted out of national and local NGOs and other organisations focusing on the support of refugees and asylum seekers. The reason for choosing the interviewees of this second group, was mainly the fact, that they have an exhaustive knowledge of the provision of reception conditions to asylum seekers in the analysed countries and in addition to this they promote the compliance with human and fundamental rights and are therefore aware of possible shortcomings or infringements of the analysed approaches to the provision of reception conditions to asylum seekers.

Table 2: Overview of the interviewees details

Country Interviewee Characteristics

Germany

G1 NGO, policy officer,

male, 37 years

G2 NGO, policy officer,

male, 40 years

G3 NGO, female, volunteer

63

G4 NGO, male, research

officer, 35 years

G5 State official, female,

local government, 42 years

G6 State official, female, PR

manager, 40 years

G7 State official, male, local

government, 52 years

G8 State official, female, case

worker, 46 years Netherlands NL1 NGO, female, PR manager, 43 years NL2 NGO, female, PR manager, 39 years

NL3 NGO, male, education

officer, 54 years

NL4 NGO, female, case

worker, 29 years

NL5 NGO, male, volunteer, 25

years

NL6 State official, male, local government, 38 years

NL7 State official, female,

local government, 35 years

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NL8 State official, male, local government case worker, 40 years

United Kingdom

UK1 NGO, female, PR officer,

42 years

UK2 NGO, male, research and

policy officer, 37 years

UK3 NGO, male, volunteer, 40

years

UK4 NGO, female, policy

officer, 50 years

UK5 State official, female,

policy officer, 32 years

UK6 State official, male,

regional government, 50 years

UK7 State official, male, local government, case worker, 41 years

Generally, around five to eight interviews per country have been conducted, with a fair representation between the first and the second group of interviewees. In more detail, eight interviews were conducted in Germany, with four interviewees representing the first group and the remaining four interviewees representing the second group; interviews were also conducted in the Netherlands, with three interviewees of the first group and five interviewees belonging to the second group; and finally seven interviews were conducted in the United Kingdom with a ratio of three to four, with the latter being from the second group mentioned earlier. Hence, in total 23 interviews in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were conducted, with ten

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interviewees from the governmental or administrative sector and 13 interviewees working in the ‘NGO sector’. In both cases, interviews were semi-structured with open-ended questions, and they were conducted in the respective language, hence German, Dutch and English. The questions for the interviews have been prepared beforehand and there were two different sets of questions in place, tailored to the two different groups of people that have been interviewed.

Anticipated problems

Due to the context and field the study takes place, there are various problems in the data collection, in particular in relation to conducting the interviews. While NGOs and other organisations that work with and support asylum seekers and refugees were rather approachable and sympathetic in participating in the study and willing to be interviewed; it seemed to be more demanding and challenging to engage with governmental bodies and state officials in the participation in the study. Frequently, it was reasoned that participants working in these governmental bodies and local authorities fear that their participation in the study might lead to criticism of these bodies and uncover shortcomings and flaws in their work. In this respect, it proved to be a good approach to contact NGOs or other organisations supporting asylum seekers first, as they very often have already existing contacts and connections to governmental or administrative bodies, that they are more than willing to establish a connection to. In addition to this, researcher tried to anonymised the collected data as much as possible so that it becomes more difficult to uncover the interviewees from their statements and information they have provided.

Another issue, which arose in the beginning of conducting the interviews, was the choice of the language that the interviews are conducted in. One the one hand, there was the possibility to conduct all the interviews in English, in order to make transcription and comparability easier. On the other hand, there was the possibility, to conduct the interviews in the language of the interviewee, hence German, Dutch and English. Conducting interviews in the language that the interviewee is familiar with, has a variety of advantages, as it has been already discussed in this chapter, however there are certain disadvantages or problems that might result from a multi-language interview approach.

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Access, ethics and informed consent

Prior to conducting the interviews, the whole research project, together with its proposed data collection process was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Arts, Design and Social Sciences of Northumbria University and it was deemed suitable to proceed with the research project.

Once adequate organisations and people have been allocated that are willing to cooperate in the research project and be interviewed, they received an overview of the research project together with topics that will be discussed during the interview. In addition to this, interviewees were send an informed consent sheet, which was discussed prior to the interview and signed off by both parties.

In order to guarantee anonymity of the participating interviewees as much as it is possible, they were given codes and synonyms in the data analysis process and later on in the writing up process of the thesis.

4.4 Approaches to data analysis