Collecting, Analysing and Presenting Migration Histories

This chapter addresses the collection, analysis and presentation of migration histories across different methodological approaches. The emphasis will be on the first of these steps: collecting information. However, I will show how information can be collected in different ways for different analytical purposes, and indicate how more specialized analysis might follow. Three forms of data collection will be addressed: conventional interviews, life history calendars and migration history charts. The presentation of migration histories in publications obviously depends on the analytical approach. What I will do here is to show how detailed family migration histories can be displayed and used as a complement to text, using either the migration history chart or the so-called Lexis diagram.