The Intersectionality of Social Exclusion and International Comparison: Rethinking the Methodological Nuances

This chapter foregrounds the methodological considerations involved in a cross-national comparison of qualitative data on social exclusion and marginalization. Drawing on the possibilities of intersectional multilevel analysis in Indian and Swiss contexts, the chapter further discusses the nuances of juxtaposing these data. It follows attempts by a Swiss-Indian research team to study how marginalization involves multiple intersectionalities that operate simultaneously. It aims to capture the experiences of migrant workers in India and people without legal residency status in Switzerland during the COVID-19 lockdown, placing them against the cultural histories, social structures, and state interventions. Using intersectionality, the study explores how structures of exclusion operate at multiple levels of subjectivity and, through epistemic violence, naturalize social inequalities. The project attempts to identify how they are still being rendered invisible and their miseries normalized, invoking the impression that it is perpetual. Cross-border research becomes significant in the context of internationalization and globalization, and the chapter discusses the issues and the promises of such a comparison. Beyond the cultural boundaries and differences and the conceptual-methodological incongruities, we argue that the comparison can illuminate how power relations operate at multiple levels in different contexts, reproducing and normalizing discriminatory mechanisms.