The focus in the previous chapters has been on the new ways to think about broad societal concepts and issues in the context of diversity and cross-cultural research. Namely, the focus was on multiculturalism and mobile inequalities as two equally important and relevant topics that need to be critically unpacked but also reimagined in terms of their relevance for diversity and culture research. In contrast to these more theoretical discussions, this chapter offers discussion in relation to ethics, epistemology, and methodology. To engage scholars that might want to know how to go about doing research guided by mobility, the chapter provides some concrete examples and perspective related to the appropriate methodologies that can guide research in a transnational mode. These examples are provided to offer different ways transnational research can take shape. At the same time, the chapter delves into shared aspects of what might be seemingly very different methodologies and use of methods in these various examples. In all, the chapter aims to provoke questions around what considerations and approaches are necessary in order to carry out research guided by transnational migration studies frameworks.

For example, guided by an ontology of mobility, what new considerations and expectations are there in relation to methodology or the theory of methods? Furthermore, how can scholars study mobile objects/subjects of study when the very methods of social science are guided by static ontologies and generally place-based? And how do notions of ethics and epistemology contribute to rethinking about methodology as the theory of methods? This chapter aims to provide insights to these issues and questions, and also to provide examples based on empirical work across different academic disciplines. In doing so, the goal is to provide multiple ways to engage transnationalism and mobility in thinking about and crafting appropriate methodology. This chapter contributes and, moreover, to our ability to see the ways in which multiscalar global ways of being and belonging take shape. This approach and discussion allow consideration of how adopting particular sets of approaches, methods, and maneuvers can allow the examination of transnationalism in relation to subjectivities, practices, and ideas among other objects/subjects that may exist in a transnational fashion.