What are the main goals of Jigsaw's Voices of Refugee Youth project?

The Voices of Refugee Youth project aims to address evidence gaps in refugee education, integrate refugees into research, improve access to higher education for refugee youth, and create employment pathways for them. It focuses on a refugee youth-centered methodological approach.

How does Jigsaw ensure ethical considerations in its displacement-based research?

Jigsaw applies standard ethical research principles, focusing on informed consent, thorough risk assessments, and ensuring research benefits the displaced community. They also emphasize considering research team positionality, sharing findings with participants, avoiding generalizations, and adopting participatory approaches.

What challenges do refugee researchers often face?

Refugee researchers often face superficial engagement in research, a lack of involvement in decision-making processes, and unclear pathways to becoming independent researchers. Their qualifications are sometimes overshadowed by their identity, impacting access to information and interviews.

How does the RLRH address power imbalances in research?

The RLRH addresses power imbalances by ensuring refugee researchers lead the research process, with non-refugee colleagues providing support and guidance. They implement a consultative, collective decision-making process involving both groups, emphasizing knowledge sharing and navigating ethical issues collaboratively.

How does the context of Lebanon affect refugee-led research?

Lebanon's protracted crises, including civil war, waves of refugees, and severe economic depression, create a challenging environment for refugee research. Issues like a lack of legal status for refugees, hate speech, and the absence of national census since 1932 complicate research and policy efforts.

What is the difference between refugee-led and participatory research from a refugee perspective?

Refugee-led research, according to Funny Joyce, involves refugees leading the research from start to finish, with the power to decide priorities. Participatory research, while involving refugees, often means they participate at different extents without full decision-making power, focusing on trust-building and involving partners at all stages.

What are some of the 'missing voices' in refugee research?

Missing voices in refugee research include minority groups such as the elderly, persons with disabilities, and the LGBTQI+ community. Additionally, smaller groups of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host community members are often underrepresented, leading to less inclusive and impactful research.

Why is training and employment crucial for empowering refugee researchers?

Training empowers refugees with the necessary research skills and confidence to lead research agendas. Creating viable employment pathways, like Jigsaw's research assistant roles, provides refugees with a roadmap to become fully-fledged researchers, integrating them into the professional research landscape and enabling them to use their contextual knowledge effectively.

Building a refugee-led research agenda - positionality, ethics and accountability - MS 2023

Q: What is the mission of the Refugee-Led Research Hub (RLRH)?

The RLRH, an initiative of the Refugee Study Center at the University of Oxford, aims to support individuals with lived experience to lead research in forced displacement studies. Its main mission is to shift power and ensure scholars with displacement backgrounds are included in knowledge production.

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May 10, 2023|97 views|2

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Key Moments

TL;DR

Refugee-led research prioritizes ethics, accountability, and genuine participation, shifting power dynamics and fostering inclusion.

Key Insights

Centering refugees in research is crucial for co-creating pathways for learning, livelihoods, and dignity.

Ethical considerations in refugee research demand questioning 'why we are doing this' and who benefits.

Positionality of researchers, both refugee and non-refugee, requires continuous self-reflection and acknowledgement of existing systemic inequalities.

Participatory research necessitates building trust and involving refugee partners at all stages, truly co-owning the process.

Addressing power imbalances involves intentional team setups, clear decision-making pathways, and recognizing the privilege held by non-refugee researchers.

Investing in training and creating employment pathways for refugee researchers is essential to build a sustainable and impactful refugee-led research agenda.

Avoiding generalizations within refugee communities and recognizing their heterogeneity is critical for ethical and accurate research.

Representation in refugee research needs to go beyond dominant groups to include marginalized voices like the elderly, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ individuals, and host communities.

Female refugees and youth often have underrepresented voices in research due to cultural limitations and differing domestic responsibilities.

Rethinking research methodologies to be more context-appropriate, including child-friendly tools, is vital for genuine child and youth participation.

THE IMPERATIVE OF REFUGEE-CENTERED RESEARCH

The Migration Summit 2023 emphasizes centering programs, discussions, and narratives around refugees, with a specific focus on building a refugee-led research agenda. This approach aims to co-create pathways for learning, livelihoods, and dignity by involving displaced individuals directly in the research process. It challenges traditional research structures by prioritizing the perspectives and priorities of refugees themselves, ensuring that research outputs are relevant and impactful for their communities.

ETHICAL FOUNDATIONS AND POSITIONAUTY CHALLENGES

Conducting research with displaced communities requires rigorous ethical considerations beyond standard principles. Key questions must be asked about the purpose and beneficiaries of the research; if the displaced community does not benefit, the research should not proceed. Researchers, particularly those from Global North organizations, must critically examine their positionality, acknowledging how they navigate existing, often exclusive, structures and the risk of perpetuating paternalistic behaviors. Continuous self-reflection on their role and the aim to eventually work themselves out of existence or radically resituate themselves are crucial for a truly refugee-led agenda.

REFUGEE-LED VERSUS PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH: DEFINING THE DIFFERENCE

Refugee-led research is defined as studies owned and driven by refugees from inception to completion, where they hold decision-making power. Participatory research, while involving refugees, may see them contribute at various levels but not necessarily control the research agenda or methodology. The distinction lies in the degree of ownership and power. Meaningful participatory research hinges on building trust between researchers and participants, ensuring refugees are partners who co-own the process, contributing to question formulation, data collection, analysis, and dissemination, rather than merely being subjects.

ADDRESSING POWER IMBALANCES AND FOSTERING INCLUSION

Power imbalances are a significant barrier in refugee-led research, often leading to superficial engagement or tokenistic representation. Organizations like the Refugee-Led Research Hub (RLRH) address this through intentional team setups with refugee researchers at the core of leadership, supported by non-refugee colleagues. Clear decision-making pathways, consultative processes, and regular check-ins ensure collective agreement and accountability. Furthermore, RLRH actively identifies allies and engages in conversations with those seeking to partner, advocating for refugee researchers' agency and expertise over their identity.

THE CRITICALITY OF CONTEXT, ETHICS, AND REPRESENTATION

Research ethics must adapt to the specific contexts of displacement, where procedural ethics may not align with fieldwork realities. Navigating these ethical dilemmas requires consistent dialogue and setting appropriate expectations. The homogenizing of refugee populations is a critical issue; research must be attentive to context-specific dynamics, avoiding generalizations. True representation requires acknowledging diverse experiences within refugee communities, including those of minority groups, individuals with disabilities, the LGBTQI+ community, internally displaced persons, and host communities. The voices of women, girls, children, and youth are often underrepresented and require specific, child-friendly methodologies to ensure their perspectives are captured.

EMPOWERMENT, EMPLOYMENT, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Empowering refugees through training in research skills is fundamental to enable their leadership in the field. Initiatives like Jigsaw's 'Voices of Refugee Youth' project trained refugees, providing them with accredited qualifications and research experience. Creating viable employment pathways for these researchers, as demonstrated by Jigsaw employing its research assistants, is crucial for building a sustainable future for a refugee-led research agenda. This involves collaboration, recognizing privilege, and advocating for a paradigm shift where refugees are seen first and foremost as researchers, educators, and professionals, with displacement being merely a circumstance.

Mentioned in This Episode

●Companies

●Organizations

●Studies Cited

●Concepts

●People Referenced

Common Questions

The Migration Summit 2023 aims to build bridges between diverse communities of displaced learners, universities, companies, social enterprises, policymakers, employers, and governments around key challenges and opportunities for refugee and migrant communities. This year's theme is 'Co-creating Pathways for Learning, Livelihoods, and Dignity'.

Topics

Refugee Research Participatory Research Forced Displacement Studies Research Ethics Power Dynamics In Research Youth Involvement In Research Research Methodologies Global North-South Collaboration Humanitarian Studies Knowledge Production Policy Advocacy Lebanon Crisis Community-Led Research Inclusion In Research

Mentioned in this video

conceptHart's Ladder of Participation

A helpful model mentioned for exploring different participation levels in research, especially with refugees.

conceptMigration Summit 2023

A month-long global event organized by MIT, react, Namal, and Quran Foundation, designed to build bridges between diverse communities around challenges and opportunities for refugee and migrant communities, focusing on co-creating pathways for learning, livelihoods, and dignity.

locationKiziba Refugee Camp

A refugee camp in the western province of Rwanda where Ama Pfae resides.

conceptIraqi refugees

Refugee group in Lebanon, part of waves in the late 90s and 2000s, facing complex legal situations.

conceptBeirut explosion 2020

A huge non-atomic explosion that occurred in 2020 in Lebanon, considered the biggest since World War II, adding to the country's crises.

locationKigali

The city in Rwanda where Amy is based.

locationBurundi

The country from which Amy originates.

organizationDubai Cares

Funding body for the Voices of Refugee Youth project.

conceptOctober 2019 economic depression

A severe economic crisis that hit Lebanon, considered one of the top three collapsed countries since the early 20th century, devaluing local currency by 95% in three years.

organizationRefugee Education UK

A core partner in the Voices of Refugee Youth project.

organizationJohn Carroll University

University in the United States that supported the Voices of Refugee Youth project with an associated training program.

companyCentrality

Supported the Voices of Refugee Youth project with an associated training program.

organizationRefugee Research and Policy Center

A center at the Sunflowers Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs that conducts projects on refugees.

companyJigsaw

A UK-based research organization focused on building evidence for change in education in low-income contexts, and a core partner in the Voices of Refugee Youth project.

personAma Pfae

A Congolese refugee based in Kiziba refugee camp, Rwanda, and a research assistant at Jigsaw.

studyVoices of Refugee Youth Project

A three-year research project funded by Dubai Cares with Jigsaw, Refugee Education UK, and UNHCR as core partners, aimed at building evidence for post-primary education for refugee youth, employing a refugee youth-centered methodological approach.

organizationRefugee-Led Research Hub (RLRH)

An initiative of the Refugee Study Center at the University of Oxford, aiming to support individuals with lived experience to lead research in forced displacement studies and shift power in knowledge production.

conceptPalestinian refugees

Refugee group in Lebanon, part of waves starting decades ago, facing complex legal situations.

organizationSunflowers Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs

Institution housing the Refugee Research and Policy Center.

organizationRefugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford

The institution from which the Refugee-Led Research Hub is an initiative.

studyRefugee-Led Organizations in Eastern Africa

A research project conducted by RLRH that examined community perceptions on the impact of refugee-led organizations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, led by refugees and displaced persons.

organizationBritish Institute in Eastern Africa

Location of a Refugee-Led Research Hub office in Nairobi.

groupSyrian refugees