A reflexive ethnographic account of the practical and emotional challenges encountered by the researcher during fieldwork is too often separated from the analytical research results, which, as argued by this paper, downplays or even ignores the analytical value of the encountered challenges. Drawing on personal examples from ethnographic research in immigration detention, the purpose of this paper is to show that these challenges have an intrinsic analytical value.,Ethnographic research was carried out in two immigration detention centres in Belgium and one in the Netherlands. Observations, informal conversations with detainees and staff, and semi-structured interviews with detainees were triangulated. Extracts from fieldnotes are presented and discussed to demonstrate the analytical value of the challenges experienced during fieldwork.,Three important challenges are presented: distrust from organisational gatekeepers and research participants, disruptions of the organisational routines, and witnessing and experiencing feelings of powerlessness. The analytical value of these challenges is strongly connected to theoretical and analytical themes that emerged during the research.,Ethnographic researchers are encouraged to explicitly treat the reflexive accounts of practical and emotional challenges as “data in itself” and as such nested within their analytical results.

中文翻译：

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了解移民拘留

关于研究人员在田野调查中遇到的实际和情感挑战的反思性民族志描写常常与分析研究结果分开，正如本文所论证的那样，对研究挑战的分析价值轻描淡写甚至忽略了。借鉴人种学方面的移民拘留研究实例，本文旨在证明这些挑战具有内在的分析价值。人种学研究在比利时的两个移民拘留中心和荷兰的一个移民拘留中心进行。观察，与被拘留者和工作人员的非正式对话以及与被拘留者的半结构化访谈被分成了三角形。呈现并讨论了摘录的摘录，以证明实地考察工作中遇到的挑战的分析价值。提出了三个重要的挑战：来自组织看门人和研究参与者的不信任，组织常规的破坏以及见证和体验无能为力的感觉。这些挑战的分析价值与研究过程中出现的理论和分析主题紧密相关。鼓励民族志研究者将对实际和情感挑战的反思性描述视作“数据本身”，并嵌套在其分析结果之内。