Problems/ Issues of Conducting Research with Refugees - Essay Example

?RESEARCH METHODOLOGY of Literature Review Conducting research with groups that are regarded as socially excluded is exciting and insightful though often faced with myriad of challenges. According to Greenhalgh, Sales, and Emmel (2005, p. 1), it is difficult to recruit socially excluded individuals and groups into research studies. They further observe that researchers face difficulties in recruiting and obtaining information from this group even in cases where studies are explicitly designed to seek the values, opinions, and experiences of the socially excluded individuals and groups. In particular reference to research methods for refugees, the challenge is even immense. Voutira (2007, p. 163) notes that the main challenges for refugee research are trust and access. In most researches, the degree of social separation between the study population and the researchers is in most cases characterized by distrust. Gaining access to refugees with the aim of carrying out research about them may prove difficult because of the regulatory procedures required and the issue of trust (Schweitzer and Steel, 2008, p. 88). It is important to employ research methods that facilitate gaining of access to the refugees and subsequently building trust. This will be essential in enhancing researcher- participant relationship hence achieving research objectives (Emmel, Hughes, Greenhalgh, & Sales, 2007). There should be appropriate way of recruiting refugees to research while at the same time considering the perceptions concerning the social exclusion nature among those accessed. Guerin and Guerin (2007, p. 150) explains that the design of methodology of research for refugees should consider gatekeepers for purposes of gaining easy access and enhancing trust. In regard to sampling, they explain that the sampled population should include aid workers and representatives of refugees under study selected through snow balling sampling method. Besides, the most appropriate data collection technique is focus group and personal interviews. Also, questionnaires method will be appropriate in researching refugees especially when seeking to obtain anonymous answers (Sixsmith, Boneham and Goldring 2003, p. 579). Problems/ Issues of Conducting Research with Refugees There are several problems and issues that arise in conducting research with refugees. These problems can broadly be categorized into methodological problems and ethical issues. This methodology is for research proposal for a project that seeks to establish the extent to which Afghan refugees in Fremont, California are able to access health and social care. Therefore, the problems and issues addressed will be in reference to this group. Before addressing these problems and issues, it is important to define what the term ‘refugees’ means. Temple and Moran (2007, p. 674) defines refugees as the group of people who have decided to leave behind their habitual residence places under certain coercion conditions. Due to the extent of the challenges they say and the places of their ‘current residence’, they are considered as one of the socially excluded groups. In regard to methodological problems, there are several problems that researchers experience when doing research with refugees. The first problem is that of recruitment and retention of participants. This problem is attributed to the issue of trust and access. Most refugees are often are often accompanied by fear and reluctance as a result of difficulties that they undergo in the process of adapting and surviving in foreign and sometimes hostile and unbearable environments (Jacobsen and Landau, 2003, p. 186). As such, they are unwilling to reveal their real views to outsiders including the researchers. Apart from that, they may be formulating certain strategies such as security or how to leave the refugee camp; therefore, disclosing any information to the researcher might put some of their strategies in danger. It is against this background the issues of access and trust arise. Voutira (2007, p. 170) notes that gaining access and developing trust is one of the researchers’ salient challenge particularly in research with refugees. In order to overcome these problems, it is important that researchers devise methods to gain easy access and build trust with the refugees. Engaging gatekeepers is one of the proven ways of achieving these ends (Emmel, Hughes, & Greenhalgh, 2006, p. 26). It is worth noting that accessing refugees for research and building their trust is not enough; it is more crucial to maintain this trust in order to achieve the research objectives in the long run. This is because retention of refugee participants has in most researches proved futile. Hughes, Emmel, Greenhalgh and Sales (2004, p. 16) advise that trust should be maintained through acts of reciprocity; there should be informal exchanges between researcher(s) and participants. Additionally, researchers’ ability to construct representative samples is considered as another methodological problem of conducting research with refugees. Administrative and political obstacles may present challenges for creation of random samples (Keles, 2011). Snowball sampling is usually a preferred method by many social scientists carrying out research with refugees even though it has the risk of selection bias. As a result of some of the above mentioned methodological problems, the problem of reliability and validity of instruments arises in regard to conducting research with refugees. Temple and Moran (2007, p. 679) notes that since snow balling is the most used sampling method in research involving refugees, the research may be prone to bias due to bias in selection of participants hence denying the research the reliability and validity aspect. Also, trust issues that arise and lack of ‘true views’ from some respondents make the reliability and validity of researches conducted with refugees to be questionable (Paton, 2002, p. 45). It is no doubt that in conducting research with refugees, just like in most researches involving human subjects, ethical issues must arise. Mostly, ethical issues arise from the fact that some if not most of the refugees have second thoughts concerning the independence, motives, and intentions of the researchers, and therefore having doubts about how the information they provide will be used (Smith, 2009, p. 61). Some refugees may think, for example, that the researchers have the capability to influence the resettlement process and the institutions involved in it, hence leading to unrealistic expectations. As a result of this, there are various ethical issues that arise in conducting research with refugees. The first one is confidentiality whereby refugees are concerned with the use of information they give and how these information will be used. The researcher has to convince the participants that the confidentiality of their information will be maintained (Patton, 2002, p. 38). Secondly, Schweitzer and Steel (2008, p. 100) argues that informed consent is a major ethical issue in conducting research with refugees; this is because refugees, in most cases, carry histories of grief, anguish, and pain with themselves, thus making it difficult to obtain consent from them. The challenge is not just about obtaining consent from them but also about judging how the data obtained with consent, if shared, from refugees might result to unintended consequences Jacobsen & Landau (2003). Furthermore, identifying problems without nobody or any institutions fixing them in near future is presents an ethical challenge; since most researches are aimed at identifying problems, refugees usually expect these problems to be fixed, an expectation that is rarely met Guerin and Guerin (2007, p. 154). Methods i) Gatekeepers The project will aim at establishing the extent to which Afghan refugees in Fermont, California. Seeking access to the refugees and subsequent building of trust will be done through the gatekeepers. Emmel, Hughes, Greenhalgh, & Sales (2007) says that gatekeepers fall into three major categories namely; comprehensive, formal, and informal gatekeepers. All these categories will be relied upon during the study. Comprehensive gatekeepers are those who implement comprehensive services addressing health and social care needs of the refugees and they have long- standing relationship with the group. Formal gatekeepers are those who work on behalf of statutory agencies with the mandate to supervise or control the refugees but have limited involvement with the group. Informal gatekeepers use their own resources in addressing the needs of these refugees by protecting, supporting and befriending them (Sixsmith, Boneham, and Goldring 2003, p. 586). ii) Snow balling sampling Snow balling sampling method will be the preferred method of selecting participants because other sampling methods such as random sampling may be faced by huge political and administrative obstacles. The initial persons identified will be requested to identify the subsequent participants on the basis of gender, race, and religion among other factors so as to minimize biasness which is a main weakness of this method (Patton, 2002, p. 50). iii) Focus Group Discussions And Personal Interviews Focus group discussions will help in exploring the refugees’ views and feelings about the extent to which they are able to access health and social care in the camp. It will also be used to discover their concerns and attitudes about health and social care (Higgins and O'Donnell, 2007, p. 175). A group of 8 to 20 refugees will gather at any given focus group discussion. There will be five focus group discussions. In addition, personal interviews will be conducted. These interviews will involve the researchers and the five selected aid workers and five selected refugees’ representatives. Notes will be taken in both focus group discussions and personal interviews. iv) Questionnaires Patton (2002, p. 17) argues that a more credible, reliable, and valid research is that which combines both the qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Therefore, in order to achieve these thresholds, questionnaires will be administered with the aim of obtaining quantitative data. These questionnaires will be administered randomly to adults in the Afghan refugee camp in Fermont, California. Evaluation of and rationale for the chosen methods, and potential practical and ethical issues Considering the group of people under study in this research, the methods of research were considered the most appropriate. As has been noted, conducting research with socially excluded groups such as refugees is often faced with several methodological and ethical challenges. Therefore, these methods were chosen in order to address some of these challenges. Also, they were chosen because they allow for considerations of perceptions concerning access to health and social care in the camp. The use of gatekeepers will help in facilitating easy access to the participants as they will help diminish the trust and confidentiality concerns that the refugees may have over the research (Hughes, Emmel, Greenhalgh, and Sales, 2004, p. 12). The use of snow balling sampling method was aimed at avoiding political and administrative obstacles that may arise when using other sampling methods (Keles, 2011). However, this method may lead to biasness in selection of participants; in the light of this reality, measures were put in place to reduce if not preventing this possibility from occurring. Moreover, the fact that refugees face serious social and emotional challenges cannot be disputed. Therefore, focus on their issues especially through research should be comprehensive and that which indicate intention to have pay close attention to their issues and problems (Higgins and O'Donnell, 2007, p. 176). As such, focus group discussion will be the most appropriate in conducting research with refugees. However, the selection of the participants in the discussion should be done properly to ensure that the participants represent all sub- groups among the refugees. Furthermore, personal interviews will help get comprehensive and in-depth information from the refugees, hence getting deeper understanding on the extent of access to health and social care by the refugees (Jacobsen, & Landau, 2003, p. 202).. Lastly, questionnaire will be useful in complementing the qualitative data in the research (Voutira, 2007, 169). Data obtained through questionnaires will be helpful in determining the percentage of refugees who are able to access health and social care in the camp. However, it will be important that the questionnaires take into consideration the language of the refugees because they are from Afghanistan and may not know English. Reference List Emmel ND., Hughes K., Greenhalgh J., & Sales A, 2007, “Accessing socially excluded people— trust and the gatekeeper in the researcher participant relationship” Sociological Research Online 12(2). Emmel ND, Hughes K, & Greenhalgh J, 2006, “Methodological strategies for accessing socially excluded people” http://www.reallifemethods.ac.uk/events/docs/20061214-emmel-accessing excludedpeople.pdf Greenhalgh. J., Sales, A., and Emmel, N, 2005, Methods Briefing: Developing Methodological Strategies to Recruit and Research Socially Excluded Groups, Available: http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/methods/publications/documents/Emmel.pdf Guerin, P, and Guerin, B, 2007, 'Research with refugee communities: going around in circles with methodology'. The Australian Community Psychologist, 19(1), 150-162. Higgins, M. and O'Donnell, C, 2007, 'Involving refugees in focus group research'. In A. Williamson and R. de Souza (Eds.), Researching with communities: grounded perspectives on engaging communities in research (pp. 167-179). London: Muddy Creek Publisher. Hughes, K. Emmel, N. Greenhalgh, G. and Sales, A, 2004, 'Access to the socially excluded: the constitutive power of ethical practices in the researcher/gate-keeper/participant encounter.' ESRC Methods Programme Research Methods Festival Oxford.2nd July 2004 (2004). Jacobsen, K., & Landau, L.B, 2003, “The dual Imperative in refugee research: Some methodological and ethical considerations in social science research on forced migration” Disasters, 27, 185-206. Keles, F, 2011, Methodological Challenges Encountered in the Study of Refugees, Available: http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2011/10/20/methodological-challenges-encountered-in-the-study-of-refugees/ Patton, M.Q, 2002, Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. London: Sage. Sixsmith, J., Boneham, M., and Goldring, J.E, 2003, 'Accessing the community: gaining insider perspectives from the outside' Qualitative Health Research 13.4: 578-89. Smith, V.J, 2009, “Ethical and effective ethnographic research methods; A case study with Afghan refugees in California” Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 4, 59-72. Schweitzer, R and Steel, Z 2008, Researching refugees: methodological and ethical considerations. In: Liamputtong, Pranee, (Ed) Doing Cross-Cultural Research : Ethical and Methodological Perspectives. Social Indicators Research Series ,34 . Springer, Netherlands, pp. 87-101. Temple, B and Moran, R 2007, “Doing Research with Refugees: Issues and Guidelines”, Journal of Refugee Studies 20 (4): 673-686. Voutira, E 2007, “Refugees Research Methodologies: Consolidation and Transformation of a Field”, Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 20, Issue 2, p. 163- 171. Read More