Sampling and sampling methodology Sample Clauses

Sampling and sampling methodology. Study respondents were drawn from three main sets of people. Two were involved in transnational organizations: a group of leaders or individuals in senior positions, and a group of next generation members. The third was composed of next generation Salvadorans and Mexicans residing in California and the Washington DC metropolitan area who were not members of transnational organizations. This latter group were drawn from a ‘wider’ sample frame of immigrants and can be thought of as a control sample. These groups were chosen because I thought they would provide the information required to answer my research questions and generate data relevant for a study on next generation institutional transnationalism. Initially, the study focused on HTAs. However, there was a disappointingly slow response rate from HTAs, and given the time constraints, I was forced to include alternative philanthropic and political organizations. I suspected the initial slow response from HTAs was due to the fact that I was perceived as an ‘outsider’ with no prior links to these groups, a problem that has confronted other ethnographers of immigrant communities (for instance, see Xxxxxx et al., 2002). Fortunately, I came to see the benefits of adopting a more varied sampling methodology which could reveal the differences that existed between different types of transnational organizations and the potential control that these differences could exert on next generation inclusion. Furthermore, this shift also proved to be productive and I was able to rapidly accumulate data within two to three months after an initial period of limited progress. Nevertheless, I continued to persevere with HTAs alongside this new strategy and was eventually able to negotiate access to important HTA networks and their members. For convenience this group of transnational organizations, from which interviewees were chosen, were divided into four main categories: HTAs, Political/Solidarity organizations, Charities/NGOs, and Latino-American organizations. The characteristics of these organization-types will now be described: