Research with Refugee Children and Families

In the aftermath of the war in Syria, Canada and Germany welcomed thousands of refugees. Scholars in both countries conducted studies to learn how the refugee children and families were faring, and how local populations and non-governmental agencies were responding. This book presents researchers’ accounts of responsible ethical conduct in complex situations such as these.

In this volume edited by Mehrunnisa Ahmad Ali, contributors describe the challenges of data collection, analyses, and dissemination of findings. These include getting institutional and parental permissions to access children; ensuring everyone’s privacy, comfort, and safety; and developing trusting relationships with those whose language, culture, and lived experiences are very different from one’s own. In doing this work, researchers can get caught between their obligations toward the refugee children and families, research ethics boards, service providers, and government agencies. This book also offers advice on how to navigate these competing ethical obligations.

Research with Refugee Children and Families offers hard-won insights and methodological innovations in research with highly vulnerable populations. In the process it provides guidance on how to balance humanitarian impulses with scientific rigour, and concern for children and families with the imperatives of service providers and regulators, and all with the researcher’s own well-being.