Chapter 2: Reaching the unreachable: how to recruit those forcefully returned due to criminal convictions?

Overview & Synopsis

Both deportation and criminal convictions carry a heavy social stigma and can have a significant effect upon people who have had contact with the deportation machine and criminal justice system, as well as upon their families. Finding people who have experienced conviction and deportation and are willing to share their difficult stories poses a particular challenge to researchers. In the chapter we discuss different methods used in the recruitment of Polish people extradited from the UK and EU countries due to previous criminal activity: posting invitations on Facebook groups, contact through NGOs assisting ex-prisoners, and using data provided by prison administrations. We present our experience conducting research and analyse this experience against the backdrop of the existing methodological literature. We found the most effective way to recruit potential respondents to be to approach them while they were serving their time in prison. Online recruitment, meanwhile, proved to be the most difficult method.