Research Setting

4.1 Research Setting

This master thesis was carried out in the frame of a research pr ogramme on “migration and development”, which is part of the thematic node “Institutions, Livelihoods, Conflicts” of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South.

For the empirical part of this research a two-month field-research in Kyrgyzstan was conducted. Rather than achieve quantitative assumptions about the registration system and internal migration, the aim of the research was to explore how state operates in relation to the registration system. As this research is qualitative and strongly empirical driven, the study sites and case groups couldn’t

be defined in advance. Concerning the existing research on Bishkek and the discussed differences between the north and the south of the country (Ryabkov, 2008), the research area should be restricted to the south of the country, either on one single place, or to different places with different characters, e.g. rural versus urban sites.

The field research started in Osh, were the first weeks were used to explore the relevant issues and to define the focus of the research. So in a first step the researcher widened her general knowledge on registration practice in Kyrgyzstan through conducting interviews in Osh and Kochkorata. Osh was chosen because it is the capital of southern Kyrgyzstan and together with Jalalabat one of the main attracting destinations for internal migrants in the south of the country, thus an important case to explore internal migration and the registration system in the south of the country. As a counterpart, the researcher planned to explore the registration of internal migrants in a more peripheral region outside of those centres which nevertheless attracts internal migrants. It was challenging to find access to such a place. Finally Kochkorata, a small town in Jalalabat oblast, was chosen since it seemed to fulfil the required criteria: It was located outside of the centres Osh and Jalalabat, and due to the headquarter of the big oil company Kyrgyz Neftegas which was located there numerous internal migrants were attracted. After the trip to Kochkorata, the decision was made to conduct a case study which focuses only on the city of Osh, basically because of the limited time capacities and the amount of relevant material expected to be able to gather in Osh. Flyvbierg (2006) declares the case study method as a valuable contribution to qualitative social research as it provides in-depth insights to the realities of the social sphere. He rejects the critique that data generated from case studies can’t be generalized:

“Predictive theories and universals cannot be found in the study of human affairs. Concrete, context-dependent knowledge is, therefore, more valuable than the vain search for predictive theories and universals.” (Flyvbierg, 2006, p.224)

After the consultation of experts and some first interviews with migrants the case group was bordered, and the decision was made to focus on internal labour migrants moving to Osh, as this is the biggest group which seems to face a lot of challenges.

During the whole time of the fieldwork the researcher worked with an assistant, who helped out with translations, identifying the contacts, sharing her local expertise and gathering additional data in the internet, from ministries etc. During the whole filed-research, the researcher worked with two different assistants, each worked with her during one month.