In all, during the research we collected the following data: the transcribed interviews, the interviews' diaries and summaries, video-taped material from the fieldwork in Albania and Bulgaria as well as from significant moments of migrants' lives in Volos, and other documentation material (fieldnotes, Greek newspapers' cuttings, migrant press, photographs).

Initially, we studied and discussed thoroughly only a small number of interviews under each thematic subfield. During this phase the members of the research team collaborated in attempting a first interpretation of the data, in linking these theoretically to the available literature and in formulating new theoretical questions. After that we studied all interviews under each thematic subfield, subdivided by country of origin and age group. Finally, we tried to interpret all gathered material and formulated the main points that came out of the project under each one of the three thematic subfields.

This phase lasted from the summer of 2006 to the end of the project.