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Refusal risk due to interviewers’ characteristics and dealing with racism in metropolitan areas: a face-to-face survey research in Brussels

par Giordano, Chiara ;Jacobs, Dirk
Référence SAGE Research Methods Cases: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research
Publication Publié, 2024-03-01

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

In this case study we discuss the challenge of dealing with refusal risk due to ‘role-independent interviewer’ effects, with a focus on ethnicity. When undertaking a face-to-face survey in a middle-class neighborhood of the Brussels-Capital Region in 2020, we were confronted with a high noncontact and refusal rate. This was mainly the result of a combination of exogenous factors, including poor weather conditions, IT problems, and the start of the COVID-19 sanitary crisis. Such force majeure was highly unfortunate but easier to tackle than the impact of role-independent interviewer effects. Because during our fieldwork some of our interviewers were confronted with explicit forms of racism and discriminatory behaviours, due to their ethnic background, we discuss the practical and ethical implications of dealing with the high prevalence of role-independent interviewer effects when surveying in a metropolitan neighborhood. Our findings show that the role-independent interviewer effects linked to gender and ethnicity can be a major obstacle in survey research, both in terms of response rates and in terms of ethics.