Methodology

Fieldwork for this study was conducted in Moscow over four years, from 2013 to 2016. I started out with the intention that in-depth interviews would be the primary data collection tool and that Moscow and St Petersburg – two Russian metropolitan areas with the largest concentration of Vietnamese populations – would be my field sites. I believed that my Vietnamese and Russian language skills and, more importantly, personal connections with Vietnamese market traders through family members would fast-track my rapport with the community and allow me to obtain sufficient, quality data within a short period of time. Nevertheless, it only took me two weeks to realize that in-depth interviews were not necessarily the most ideal method and that it was almost impossible to access Vietnamese migrants in St Petersburg because my key informants were based in Moscow. Moscow therefore became the sole research site for this study. Focusing on Moscow alone later proved to be a good decision, as it allowed me to conduct extensive ethnographic research at some of the largest migrant markets in the country. Moscow ‘hosts’ the largest number of Vietnamese migrants in Russia and serves as a crucial transit point for irregular migrants hoping to move further West (Nožina, 2010, p. 241; Yudina, 2005, p. 584). With half of all migrants to Russia residing in the Moscow metropolitan region (Yudina, 2005, p. 584), it is an important site for understanding how migrants’ lives unfold in a multi-ethnic environment at the heart of Russia's vast shadow economy.

Despite my strong personal connections in Moscow, access to potential research participants was severely restricted by the hectic market life, their long work hours, the lack of privacy, and the illegality of their migrant status, which resulted in a deep distrust for strangers, (self-imposed) social isolation, and a lack of interest in trivialities and frivolities, such as an interview that promised no immediate economic benefits. While I managed to conduct in-depth interviews with 31 men and women on this first fieldwork stint and spent a substantial amount of time doing participant observation at two of Moscow's largest wholesale markets – Sadovod and Liublino – as well as in migrant living quarters around these markets, I realized that I would not be able to reach the depths of their lives without immersing myself in the community and participating in their everyday existence.