Observatório das Migrações em São Paulo: desafios das pesquisas de campo no contexto pandêmico

Abstract

The pandemic condition exacerbated vulnerabilities, making it (even more) difficult for international migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and stateless people to move and survive. It has also impacted qualitative research, particularly through the imposition of social isolation. Therefore, the objective of this article is to discuss the challenges to qualitative studies during the pandemic of COVID-19. To this end, we resorted to five studies developed by the research group “Observatório das Migrações em São Paulo” (NEPO/UNICAMP). After the brief presentation of each of them and the exposure of their respective methodologies, the present study turns its attention to the main challenges observed and presents the solutions adopted to overcome them, more specifically the theoretical and methodological paths for the continuity of the qualitative research carried out by the Observatory in the different phases of the pandemic, since the beginning of the health crisis.