The Dual Imperative in Refugee Research: Some Methodological and Ethical Considerations in Social Science Research on Forced Migration

Abstract

Social scientists doing fieldwork in humanitarian situations often face a dual imperative: research should be both academically sound and policy relevant. We argue that much of the current research on forced migration is based on unsound methodology, and that the data and subsequent policy conclusions are often flawed or ethically suspect. This paper identifies some key methodological and ethical problems confronting social scientists studying forced migrants or their hosts. These problems include non‐representativeness and bias, issues arising from working in unfamiliar contexts including translation and the use of local researchers, and ethical dilemmas including security and confidentiality issues and whether researchers are doing enough to ‘do no harm’. The second part of the paper reviews the authors' own efforts to conduct research on urban refugees in Johannesburg. It concludes that while there is no single ‘best practice’ for refugee research, refugee studies would advance its academic and policy relevance by more seriously considering methodological and ethical concerns.

Integration through participation: The effects of participating in an English Conversation club on refugee and asylum seeker integration

“…This observation data provided a comprehensive context through which to assess the role of the clubs in the refugee/asylum seekers' lives and integration strategies. Given the vulnerable nature of the refugee/asylum seeker participants in this study, issues of purposely withheld information (Jacobsen and Landau 2003;Bögner et al 2010) and power dynamics (Lammers 2007) were acknowledged throughout the participant observations, data collection, and analysis stages of the research. Additionally, linguistic flexibility (Barriball and While 1994) and careful probing techniques (Marshall and While 1994) in the interview process were required, due to the sensitive background of the participant community.…”

Linkages between Livelihood Opportunities and Refugee-Host Relations: Learning from the Experiences of Liberian Camp-based Refugees in Ghana

“…These enabled camp inhabitants to comment on the findings, and to make amendments and clarifications. The findings presented here express the best approximation of the felt and lived reality for camp inhabitants we could hope to achieve as outsiders, while recognising that the key stakeholders identified may not fully represent all views (Jacobsen and Landau 2003).…”

“…While this raised questions of confidentiality, it was essential to our access. Ethical issues are a substantial concern in refugee research (Jacobsen and Landau 2003). They were reviewed prior to the field study by our university ethics committee, at the camp Consultative Group meetings at the outset of the project, and by the research team during the progress of the research.…”

Enduring Uncertainty

“…Snowballing from research participants themselves failed for the same reason, and possibly because of the added concern that I would accidentally leak information about their own cases to their acquaintances, despite my reassurance that confidentiality would not be breached (cf. Jacobsen and Landau 2003).…”