Ethics of research with refugees

World Refugee Day has come and gone for another year, but Australian politicians continue to debate how people escaping violence and persecution can be kept out of the country. 

The global refugee population numbers 15 million, most of them hosted by developing countries, but the arrival of a few thousand asylum-seekers in Australia has stirred up public fears and resentments, often stoked by the media.

Boat arrivals are now a major election issue. In the face of all this rhetoric and strong emotion, research is vital for separating fact from fiction. 

Although politicians prefer to depict asylum-seekers as a threat, and propose deporting them even for minor offences, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows asylum-seekers living in the community are 45 times less likely to be charged with a criminal offence than members of the general public. 

Important as these facts are, however, the weight of statistics can also ‘dehumanise’ refugees. We need to understand their experiences and the reality of their lives if we are to respond to their predicaments humanely and effectively. Going about that task poses significant ethical challenges for researchers. Refugees and asylum-seekers may be vulnerable and traumatised, their cultural backgrounds and languages may be unfamiliar and their relationships with researchers may be unequal.

Our recently published book, Values and Vulnerabilities: The Ethics of Research with Refugees and Asylum-seekers, tries to grapple with these challenges. The book grew out of a symposium organised by the University of Melbourne-based Researchers for Asylum-seekers group (RAS) and supported by the McCaughey Centre in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. 

As the book’s contributors remind us, asylum-seekers and refugees are ordinary people who have survived extraordinary ordeals caused by social and political upheaval in their homelands. We engage ethically with their plight when we pause to ask ourselves ‘What if it was me or my family in that situation?’ Research can give space to voices that are frequently marginalised or silenced, and also reminds us of our relative good fortune.

While research has a vital role in promoting social justice for refugees, it is also imperative that researchers must first do no harm. Many ethical complications arise when conducting research with uprooted people who have been exposed to persecution in conflict situations, refugee camps, immigration detention settings, and following resettlement.

Three fundamental themes that create tensions for researchers are: vulnerability, power, and the relationship between research and advocacy. Refugees are rendered vulnerable by their circumstances, and recognising this vulnerability can help to evoke compassion and empathy. However over-emphasising vulnerability can hide the strengths and resilience of refugees and treat them as fragile beings who are defined by their trauma. 

Research with refugees and asylum-seekers also brings into play issues of power dynamics; in particular, the need to avoid exploitation of vulnerable groups when conducting research. 

Finally, the highly charged political environment in which much refugee research takes place, and the fact that many researchers in the field are also refugee advocates, adds to its complexity. 

The Refugee Council of Australia has chosen Restoring Hope as the theme for Refugee Week 2013. Its intention is to remind us that ‘Refugees flee their homelands not only because they fear persecution, but also because they have hope: they hope to find freedom from persecution, and safety and security for themselves and their families; they hope to be given a chance to start a new life and recover from past trauma’.

Our book is dedicated to those current and former refugees and asylum-seekers whose wellbeing is the ultimate aim of the research that this volume would guide.

Values and Vulnerabilities: The Ethics of Research with Refugees and Asylum-seekers is published by Australian Academic Press and will be launched 20 September. 

www.australianacademicpress.com.au