Community Immersion, Trust-Building, and Recruitment among Hard to Reach Populations: A Case Study of Muslim Women in Detroit Metro Area

Mehri Mohebbi Mehrsa; Annulla Linders; Carla Chifos

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.14.3.02

Authors

Mehri Mohebbi Mehrsa University of Cincinnati, U.S.A.
Annulla Linders
Carla Chifos

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.14.3.02

Keywords:

Minority, Muslim Women, Community Immersion, Recruitment, Double Visioning, Qualitative Research, Hard-to-Reach Population, Interview

Abstract

Scholars have identified a range of factors that influence the ability of researchers to access hard-toreach groups and the willingness of their members to participate in research. In this paper, we draw on insights from both ethnographic methods and participatory action research to demonstrate the importance of building trust in our relationships with hard-to-reach participants in research based on interviews. Such trust-building, we show, is greatly facilitated by pre-recruitment immersion that aids not only the recruitment of individual participants but also improves the quality of the data collected. These methodological concerns emerged from an interview study focusing on Muslim women’s use of urban public recreational spaces in South-East Michigan. Although the first author of this paper, as a woman and a Muslim, is a formal insider in the study population, her experiences with recruitment demonstrate that the access granted by insider status is insufficient as grounds for a research relationship based on trust. This is so especially when the target population is as marginalized and embattled as the post 9/11 immigrant Muslim community. With more than two years of community immersion, however, she was able to foster enough trust to secure a large number of committed participants that spoke freely and thoughtfully about the issues at stake (78 in all).

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Mehri Mohebbi Mehrsa, University of Cincinnati, U.S.A.

Mehri Mohebbi (Mehrsa) is a doctoral candidate in Urban and Regional Planning at the School of Planning, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her research and practice mainly focus on social and health disparities in urban America and qualitative research methods. For her PhD dissertation she focused on urban accessibility issues Muslim women face in Southeast Michigan, specifically social and cultural barriers Muslim women face to walk in urban neighborhoods.

Annulla Linders

Annulla Linders is an Associate Professor of sociology at the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her research interests are in culture, politics, historical sociology, social movements, and qualitative sociology. Her recent publications have appeared in Deviant Behavior, Gender & Society, Historical Sociology, Law & Society Review, Qualitative Sociology, Sociological Forum, Sociological Inquiry, and Social Problems.

Carla Chifos

Carla Chifos is an Associate Professor in the School of Planning at the College of Design, Architecture, Arts, and Planning, University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her work and teaching are in the area of sustainable community development with an interest in bringing culture and heritage into sustainability practice and theory.

References

Afzalan, Nader and Brian Muller. 2014. “The Role of Social Media in Green Infrastructure Planning: A Case Study of Neighborhood Participation in Park Siting.” Journal of Urban Technology 21(3):67-83.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2014.940701

Afzalan, Nader and Jennifer Evans-Cowley. 2015. “Planning and Social Media: Facebook for Planning at the Neighborhood Scale.” Planning Practice & Research 30(3):270-285.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2015.1052943

Ahmed, Shamila. 2016. “Reflections on Conducting Research on the ‘War on Terror’: Religious Identity, Subjectivity, and Emotions.” International Journal of Research Methodology 19(2):177-190.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2014.976488

Ali, Nargis. 2013. Being Muslim and Doing Islam: Narratives That Shape the Physical Activity of Muslim Women in New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University of Technology.
Google Scholar

Alsultany, Evelyn. 2012. Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation After 9/11. New York: NYU Press.
Google Scholar

Ampt, Elizabeth and Mark Hickman. 2015. “Workshop Synthesis: Survey Methods for Hard-to-Reach Groups and Modes.” Transportation Research Procedia 11:475-480.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2015.12.039

Aoki, Ted T. 1996. “Imaginaries of ‘East and West’: Slippery Curricular Signifiers in Education.” International Adult and Continuing Education Conference. Retrieved June 13, 2018 (https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED401406.pdf).
Google Scholar

Appleton, Cherie. 2011. “‘Critical Friends,’ Feminism and Integrity: A Reflection on the Use of Critical Friends as a Research Tool to Support Research Integrity and Reflexivity in Qualitative Research Studies.” Women in Welfare Education 10:1-13.
Google Scholar

Arcury, Thomas A. and Sara A. Quandt. 1999. “Participant Recruitment for Qualitative Research: A Site-Based Approach to Community Research.” Human Organization 58:128-133.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.58.2.t5g838w7u1761868

Benoit, Cecilia et al. 2005. “Community-Academic Research on Hard-to-Reach Populations: Benefits and Challenges.” Qualitative Health Research 15(2):263-282.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732304267752

Blakeslee, Jennifer E. et al. 2013. “Reaching Everyone: Promoting the Inclusion of Youth with Disabilities in Evaluating Foster Care Outcomes.” Children and Youth Services Review 35(11):1801-1808.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.08.010

Blauner, Robert and David Wellman. 1998. “Towards the Decolonization of Social Research.” Pp. 310-330 in The Death of White Sociology, edited by J. Ladner. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press.
Google Scholar

Blee, Kathleen. 2002. Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Google Scholar

Brown, Tamara Mose and Erynn Masi de Casanova. 2009. “Mothers in the Field: How Motherhood Shapes Fieldwork and Researcher-Subject Relations.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 37(7/8):42-57.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.0.0168

Bullock, Katherine H. and Gul Joya Jafri. 2000. “Media (Mis) Representations: Muslim Women in the Canadian Nation.” Canadian Woman Studies 20(2):35-40.
Google Scholar

Cain, Jeff. 2011. “Social Media in Health Care: The Case for Organizational Policy and Employee Education.” American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 68(11):1036-1040.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2146/ajhp100589

Calefato, Fabio, Filippo Lanubile, and Nicole Novielli. 2016. A Preliminary Investigation of the Effect of Social Media on Affective Trust in Customer-Supplier Relationships. Retrieved June 13, 2018: (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fabio_Calefato/publication/261450643_A_Preliminary_Investigation_of_the_Effect_of_Social_Media_on_Affective_Trust_in_Customer-Supplier_Relationships/links/02e7e5347e10622d0c000000.pdf).
Google Scholar

Cashin, Sheryll. 2010. “To Be Muslim or ‘Muslim-Looking’ in America: A Comparative Exploration of Racial and Religious Prejudice in the 21st Century.” Duke Forum for Law & Social Change 125-139. Retrieved June 13, 2018 (https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dflsc/vol2/iss1/6).
Google Scholar

Chong, Kelly H. 2008. “Coping with Conflict, Confronting Resistance: Fieldwork Emotions and Identity Management in a South Korean Evangelical Community.” Qualitative Sociology 31:369-390.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-008-9114-0

Crow, Graham P., Graham A. Allan, and Marcia Summers. 2001. “Changing Perspectives on the Insider/Outsider Distinction in Community Sociology.” Community, Work & Family 4(1):29-48.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/136688000200032443

Cui, Ke. 2015. “The Insider-Outsider Role of a Chinese Researcher Doing Fieldwork in China: The Implications of Cultural Context.” Qualitative Social Work 14(3):356-369.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325014545412

Curtis IV, Edward E. 2009. Muslims in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Davis, Darren W. 1997a. “The Direction of Race of Interviewer Effects among African-Americans: Donning the Black Mask.” American Journal of Political Science 41:309-322.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2111718

Davis, Darren W. 1997b. “Nonrandom Measurement Error and Race of Interviewer Effects among African Americans.” Public Opinion Quarterly 61:183-207.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/297792

Davis, Darren W. and Brian D. Silver. 2003. “Stereotype Threat and Race of Interviewer Effects in Survey on Political Knowledge.” American Journal of Political Science 47:33-45.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5907.00003

Dewing, Michael. 2010. Social Media: An Introduction. Ottawa: Library of Parliament.
Google Scholar

Duneier, Mitchell. 1999. Sidewalk. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Google Scholar

Dwyer, Sonya Corbin and Jennifer L. Buckle. 2009. “The Space Between: On Being an Insider-Outsider in Qualitative Research.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 8(1):54-63.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690900800105

Earle, Rod. 2014. “Insider and Out: Making Sense of a Prison Experience and a Research Experience.” Qualitative Inquiry 20(4):402-413.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800413515832

Eid, Mahmoud. 2014. “Perceptions about Muslims in Western Societies.” Pp. 99-120 in Re-Imagining the Other (Culture, Media, and Western-Muslim Intersections), edited by M. Eid and K. H. Karim. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137403667_6

Einwohner, Rachel L. 2011. “Ethical Considerations on the Use of Archived Testimonies in Holocaust Research: Beyond the IRB Exemption.” Qualitative Sociology 3(1):415-430.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-011-9196-y

Evans-Cowley, Jennifer and Justin Hollander. 2010. “The New Generation of Public Participation: Internet-Based Participation Tools.” Planning Practice & Research 25:397-408.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2010.503432

Eytan, Ted et al. 2011. “Social Media and the Health System.” The Permanente Journal 15(1):71-74.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/10-154

Garot, Robert. 2010. Who You Claim: Performing Gang Identity in School and on the Streets. New York: New York University Press.
Google Scholar

Goodman, Leo A. 2011. “Comment: on Respondent-Driven Sampling and Snowball Sampling in Hard-to-Reach Populations and Snowball Sampling Not in Hard-to-Reach Populations.” Sociological Methodology 41(1):347-353.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9531.2011.01242.x

Green, Aaryn and Annulla Linders. 2016. “The Impact of Comedy on Racial and Ethnic Discourse.” Sociological Inquiry 86(2):241-269.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12112

Hall, Stuart. 1990. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” Pp. 222-237 in Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, edited by J. Rutherford. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Google Scholar

Hallam, Jed. 2013. The Social Media Manifesto. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137271426

Hamdani, Daood. 2005. Triple Jeopardy: Muslim Women’s Experience of Discrimination. Toronto: Canadian Council of Muslim Women.
Google Scholar

Hassan, Rukhsana. 2015. “Issues in Ethnographic Research: Female Researchers Dilemma in a Rural Setting.” Journal of Gender & Social Issues 14(1):81-96.
Google Scholar

Hill, Mark. 2002. “Race of the Interviewer and Perception of Skin Color: Evidence from a Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality.” American Sociological Review 67:99-108.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3088935

Huntington, Samuel P. 2004. Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Google Scholar

Irwin, Katherine. 2006. “Into the Dark Heart of Ethnography: The Lived Ethics and Inequality of Intimate Field Relationships.” Qualitative Sociology 29:155-175.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-006-9011-3

Jackson, Liz. 2010. “Images of Islam in US Media and Their Educational Implications.” Educational Studies 46:3-24.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131940903480217

Jacobs, Janet L. 2004. “Women, Genocide, and Memory: The Ethics of Feminist Ethnography in Holocaust Research.” Women’s Studies 18(2):223-238.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243203261572

Jaspal, Rusi and Marco Cinnirella. 2010. “Media Representations of British Muslims and Hybridised Threats to Identity.” Contemporary Islam 4(3):289-310.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-010-0126-7

Jenkins, Sion. 2013. “Methodological Challenges of Conducting ‘Insider’ Reflexive Research with the Miscarriages of Justice Community.” International Journal of Research Methodology 16(5):373-387.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2012.709777

Katigbak, Carina et al. 2015a. “Partners in Health: A Conceptual Framework for the Role of Community Health Workers in Facilitating Patients’ Adoption of Healthy Behaviors.” American Journal of Public Health 105:872-880.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302411

Katigbak, Carina et al. 2015b. “Experiences and Lessons Learned in Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Recruit Asian American Immigrant Research Participants.” Journal of Nursing Scholarship 48(2):210-218.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12194

Krilić, Sanja Cukut. 2011. “The Role of Ethnicity in Qualitative Migration Research.” Migracijske i Etničke Teme 27(2):161-175.
Google Scholar

Mainsah, Henry and Andrew Morrison. 2012. “Social Media, Design and Civic Engagement by Youth: A Cultural View.” Proceedings of the 12th Participatory Design Conference. Retrieved June 13, 2018 (https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2347637).
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2347635.2347637

Malpass, Alice, Kim Sales, and Gene Feder. 2016. “Reducing Symbolic-Violence in the Research Encounter: Collaborating with a Survivor of Domestic Abuse in a Qualitative Study in UK Primary Care.” Sociology of Health & Illness 38(3):442-458.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12352

Mannay, Dawn and Jordon Creaghan. 2016. “Similarity and Familiarity: Reflections on Indigenous Ethnography with Mothers, Daughters and School Teachers on the Margins of Contemporary Wales.” Studies in Qualitative Methodology 14:85-93.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1042-319220160000014017

Martinez, Omar et al. 2014. “Still a Hard-to-Reach Population? Using Social Media to Recruit Latino Gay Couples for an HIV Intervention Adaptation Study.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 16(4):1-14.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3311

Matsuda, Yui, Jada L. Brooks, and Linda S. Beeber. 2016. “Guidelines for Research Recruitment of Underserved Populations.” Applied Nursing Research 32:164-170.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2016.07.009

May, Reuben A. Buford. 2014. “When the Methodological Shoe is on the Other Foot: African American Interviewer and White Interviewees.” Qualitative Sociology 37:117-136.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-013-9265-5

Mears, Ashley. 2013. “Ethnography as Precarious Work.” Sociological Quarterly 54(1):20-34.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tsq.12005

Mohamed, Besheer. 2016. Fact Tank (News in the Numbers). Retrieved June 13, 2018 (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/06/anew-estimate-of-the-u-s-muslim-population/).
Google Scholar

Mohammadi, Nooredin, Tina Jones, and David Evans. 2008. “Participant Recruitment from Minority Religious Groups: The Case of the Islamic Population in South Australia.” International Nursing Review 55(4):393-398.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-7657.2008.00647.x

Mohebbi, Mehri. 2018. “Exploring Social/Cultural Factors That Influence the Motivation of Muslim Women to Walk in Their Neighborhoods (A Case of the Detroit Metro Area).” PhD dissertation, School of Planning, DAAP, University of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Google Scholar

Monti, Daniel J. 1992. “On the Risks and Rewards of ‘Going Native.’” Qualitative Sociology 15:325-332.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00990332

Newbold, Greg et al. 2014. “Prison Research from the Inside: The Role of Convict Autoethnography.” Qualitative Inquiry 20(4):454-463.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800413516269

Noh, Samuel and Violet Kaspar. 2003. “Perceived Discrimination and Depression: Moderating Effects of Coping, Acculturation, and Ethnic Support.” American Journal of Public Health 93(2):232-238.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.93.2.232

Read, Jen’nan G. and John P. Bartkowski. 2000. “To Veil or Not to Veil? A Case Study of Identity Negotiation among Muslim Women in Austin, Texas.” Gender and Society 14(3):395-417.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124300014003003

Ryan, Louise, Eleonore Kofman, and Pauline Aaron. 2011. “Insiders and Outsiders: Working with Peer Researchers in Researching Muslim Communities.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 14:49-60.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2010.481835

Sadler, Georgia R. et al. 2010. “Recruitment of Hard-to-Reach Population Subgroups via Adaptations of the Snowball Sampling Strategy.” Nursing & Health Sciences 12(3):369-374.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-2018.2010.00541.x

Safko, Lon and David K. Brake. 2009. The Social Media Bible. Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success. London: John Wiley & Sons.
Google Scholar

Schaeffers, Nora Cate. 1980. “Evaluating Race-of-Interviewer Effects in a National Survey.” Sociological Methods and Research 8(4):400-419.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/004912418000800403

Shenoy-Packer, Suchitra. 2015. “Immigrant Professionals, Microaggressions, and Critical Sensemaking in the U.S. Workplace.” Management Communication Quarterly 29(2):257-275.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318914562069

Shirazi, Faegheh and Smeeta Mishra. 2010. “Young Muslim Women on the Face Veil (Niqab): A Tool to Resistance in Europe but Rejected in the United States.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 13(1):43-62.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877909348538

Siraj, Asifa. 2012. “‘Smoothing Down Ruffled Feathers’: The Construction of Muslim Women’s Feminine Identities.” Journal of Gender Studies 21:185-199.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2012.661584

Sirin, Selcuk R. and Michelle Fine. 2008. Muslim American Youth. New York: New York University Press.
Google Scholar

Talukdar, Jaita and Annulla Linders. 2012. “Gender, Class Aspirations, and Emerging Fields of Body Work in Urban India.” Qualitative Sociology 36:101-123.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-012-9240-6

Tanvir Syed, Khalida. 2011. “Exotic/Other: Narratives of Muslims, the Role of Media and Popular Culture.” Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry 3(2):30-39.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18733/C3J01D

Tariq-Munir, Erum. 2014. “The Dynamics of Wearing Hijab for Muslim American Women in the United States.” MA Thesis, Iowa State University. Retrieved June 13, 2018 (https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/13842/).
Google Scholar

Teusner, Annabel. 2016. “Insider Research, Validity Issues, and the OHS Professional: One Person’s Journey.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 19(1):85-96.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2015.1019263

Twine, France Winddance. 2000. “Racial Ideologies and Racial Methodologies.” Pp. 1-34 in Racing Research, Researching Race: Methodological Dilemmas in Critical Race Studies, edited by F. W. Twine and J. W. Warren. New York: New York University Press.
Google Scholar

Wacquant, Loïc. 2015. “For a Sociology of Flesh and Blood.” Qualitative Sociology 38:1-11.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-014-9291-y

Wahoush, Ellen O. 2009. “Reaching a Hard-to-Reach Population Such as Asylum Seekers and Resettled Refugees in Canada.” Bulletin of World Health Organization 87(8):568.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.08.061085

Weslowski, Peter. 2014. “Using Forums and Message Boards to Recruit Study Participants in Qualitative Research.” The Qualitative Research 19(39):1-15.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2014.1002

Western, Bruce et al. 2016. “Study Retention as Bias Reduction in Hard-to-Reach Population.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113(20):5477-5485.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1604138113

Widdicombe, Sue. 2015. “‘Just Like the Fact That I’m Syrian Like You Are Scottish’: Ascribing Interviewer Identities as a Resource in Cross-Cultural Interaction.” British Journal of Social Psychology 54(2):255-272.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12087

Williams, Rhys H. and Gira Vashi. 2007. “Hijab and American Muslim Women: Creating the Space for Autonomous Selves.” Sociology of Religion 68(3):269-287.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/68.3.269

Wing Sue, Derald. 2010. Microaggressions in Everyday Life. New Jersey: Wiley.
Google Scholar

Wing Sue, Derald et al. 2007. “Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life.” Applied Psychology 62(4):271-286.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.4.271

Woodley, Xeturah M. and Megan Lockard. 2016. “Womanism and Snowball Sampling: Engaging Marginalized Populations in Holistic Research.” The Qualitative Report 21:321-329.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2016.2198

Young, Alford A. 2008. “White Ethnographers on the Experiences of African American Men: Then and Now.” Pp. 179-200 in White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Methodology, edited by T. Zuberi and E. Bonilla-Silva. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Google Scholar

Younis, Mohamed. 2015. Muslim Americans Exemplify Diversity, Potential. Retrieved June 13, 2018 (http://www.gallup.com/poll/116260/muslim-americans-exemplify-diversity-potential.aspx).
Google Scholar

Zinn, Maxine Baca. 2001. “Insider Field Research in Minority Communities.” Pp. 159-166 in Contemporary Field Research: Perspectives and Formulations, edited by R. M. Emerson. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.
Google Scholar

Zussman, Robert. 2016. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: On the Run and Its Critics.” Society 53:436-443.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-016-0039-z