The Dual Imperative in Refugee Research
Some Methodological and Ethical Considerations in Social Science Research on Forced Migration
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4844600 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Karen Jacobsen (Tufts University), Loren B Landau, Loren Landau (0000-0002-0198-4748, University of the Witwatersrand) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 185-206 |
| Publication date | 2003-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Disasters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0361-3666 • E-ISSN: 1467-7717 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-7717.00228 |
| OpenAlex | W1865206509 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 233 |
| References cited | 20 |
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
Confidentiality · Criminology · Dual (grammatical number · Engineering ethics · Face (sociological concept · Forced migration · Harm · Political science · Public relations · Refugee · Relevance (law · Representativeness heuristic · Research ethics · Social science · Sociology · Suspect · Education and experiences of immigrants and refugees · Engineering · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Social Psychology
Ethical standards for mental health and psychosocial support research in emergencies
Overcoming language barriers in community-based research with refugee and migrant populations
Makeshift camp methodologies along the Balkan Route
Analyzing Online Migration Forums
Sociology and Forced Migration
Beyond Sociology of Forced Migration
Local Integration
At Risk of Deprivation
Uchodźcy w Afryce. Etnografia przemocy i cierpienia
Ethics of Research in Conflict Environments
Dunki migration from Pakistan to Italy
Syrian Women Refugees
Every Morning before You Open the Door You Have to Watch for that Brown Envelope”
Roots, Belonging, and Digital Infrastructure
Empowerment and Community Participation
Refugiados, solicitantes de asilo y antropólogos
From Exile to Homeland Return
To Whom Does the Knowledge Belong? The Researcher-Researched Relationship and Vulnerability in Refugee Studies
Ethical reflections on children’s participation in educational research during humanitarian crises
Reflections of methodological and ethical challenges in conducting research during Covid-19 involving resettled refugee youth in Canada
Engaged Anthropology and the Need for Empathy
Board Games as Interview Tools
‘Day Labour’ and ‘Xenophobia’ in South Africa
Integration through participation
Hidden Spaces and Urban Health
The Economics of Forced Migration
African Renaissance and Negotiation of Yoruba Identity in the Diaspora
Invisibility in African Displacements
The Securitization of Migration and Refugee Women
Routledge Handbook of Asian Demography
Research Methodologies and Ethical Challenges in Digital Migration Studies
Mixed Migration, Forced Displacement and Job Outcomes in South Africa
Surviving the War in Syria
Bridges to Nowhere
Ethical issues in research with refugees
Noncommunicable diseases among urban refugees and asylum-seekers in developing countries
Sampling challenges in a study examining refugee resettlement
Improving primary health care quality for refugees and asylum seekers
Role Strain and Systemic Barriers
Mobile and Disappearing Migrant Geographies
The absent presence of the deportation apparatus
Our lives and bodies matter
Springing Amir
The Australian Research on Refugee Integration Database (Arrid)
Religious Recognition and Policy Dilemmas
If I Die here, I'm a Hero!' On Masculinity and Vulnerability Among Male Asylum Seekers
Confronting the Insider-Outsider Polemic in Conducting Research with Diasporic Communities
Urbanisation, nativism, and the rule of law in South Africa's ‘forbidden’ cities
The ethics of mental health survey research in low- and middle- income countries
Six rapid assessments of alcohol and other substance use in populations displaced by conflict
Precarious hope and reframing risk behavior from the ground up
A systematic literature review of the ethics of conducting research in the humanitarian setting
Public health, conflict and human rights
Ethical, methodological, and contextual challenges in research in conflict settings
Placing ethics in the centre
Ethical and methodological reflections on research exploring refugee family reunification in Brazil
Social Research Methods
Refugee Status Determination Procedure and Mental Health of the Applicant
Post-Migration Stressors and Their Association With Symptom Reduction and Non-Completion During Treatment for Traumatic Grief in Refugees
Migration, access to ART, and survivalist livelihood strategies in Johannesburg
South African HIV/Aids programming overlooks migration, urban livelihoods, and informal workplaces
Learning to Fit in
The Effectiveness of Online Thematic Expressive Writing on Prolonged Grief Disorder, Anxiety, Depression, and Positive Mental Health among Refugees in the Transition Stage of Asylum Seeking
Supporting mental health and psychosocial wellbeing through social and emotional learning
Pockets of Participation
Urban vulnerability and displacement
Substance use among populations displaced by conflict
They Now Know That They Are Children of War”
Implementing and Interpreting Refugee Resettlement Through a Veil of Secrecy
Do no harm? The impact of policy on migration scholarship
Thrive or Survive? Explaining Variation in Economic Outcomes for Refugees
Modeling and Simulation as a Bridge to Advance Practical and Theoretical Insights About Forced Migration Studies
Thrive or Survive? Explaining Variation in Economic Outcomes for Refugees
Ethics in Forced Migration Research
Data and research to inform global policy
But We Just Need Money”
Manufacturing insecurity
Examining the resettlement experiences of Muslim women
Broadening the positionality in migration studies
A gift exchange relationship? Reflections on doing qualitative research with vulnerable migrants
Refugee women's entrepreneurship
Representing Illiteracy
Anti-Oppressive Social Work Research
Towards an ethics of compassionate care in accompanying human suffering
Children Born of War
The Vulnerability of Immigrants in Research
Health Research in Complex Emergencies
I Wish I Had a House Like This’ Reimaging Home
The Lived Experiences of Migrants in Detention
Ethical issues in irregular migration research in Europe
Transnational lives on the move
Return to Afghanistan
Working with/beyond ‘language’
Field Research
Forum
The ethical challenges of researching refugee education
Reflections on the interplay between procedural, relational and socio-political ethics in ethnographic research with West-African women working in prostitution in Brussels
Qualitative migration research ethics
How and when should we (not) speak
Housing and the Creation of Home for Refugees in Western Australia
Historians' fallacies
Constructing social research
What Is a Case?
Do No Harm
Science as a Vocation
The logic of comparative social Inquiry
Refugees in Western Tanzania
Caught Between Borders
Beyond the Losers
Fifty Years of Refugee Studies
Historians' Fallacies
In Search of Cool Ground
The Rationality of Drawing Big Conclusions Based on Small Samples
Towards a Sociology of Forced Migration and Social Transformation
Role Conflicts in Social Fieldwork
The Problem of Ethical Integrity in Participant Observation
| Unique citing works | 233 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,16 |
| Citation span | 1970 - 2026 (57) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 229 |