Refugee Review: Emerging Issues in Forced Migration - Perspectives from Research and Practice

Abstract

Scholars and practitioners worldwide are grappling with key questions related to research and practice, particularly concerning ethics, representation, and impact. This issue of the Refugee Review set out to explore and expand these issues by focusing on four areas in forced migration research and praxis: methodological challenges and innovations, bridging research to policy and practice, new dissemination practices and public engagement, and supporting emerging scholars and practitioners. The articles presented in this volume address two of these areas most explicitly: methodological challenges and innovations in forced migration research, and bridging research to policy and practice. This volume shares four articles that address methodological challenges and innovations in forced migration research. Each article critically examines the research needs, data sources, and changing landscape of methodological approaches, considering the relationship between research and policy as well as the implications of different methods. Sartori and Ngulube open our exploration of the methodological challenges and considerations in the study of forced displacement. Through a case study of the meaning of small, portable objects, or, in some instances, the memory of these objects, carried by Palestinians into the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon, their article reflects on the ethnographic limitations and unresolved ethical and empathy dilemmas involved in forced migration research. Kinsella adds to this discussion, examining the ethical, psychosocial and cultural-linguistic challenges connected with conducting interviews with refugees and asylum seekers. Contributing to deliberations on methodological innovations emerging in forced migration, Frydenlund and De Kock summarize and review agent-based modeling as a computational approach to refugee-related research. While they conclude that agent-based modeling is a powerful tool for forced migration research where multiple factors, as well as environmental and political contexts, interact to make complex, dynamic systems, they also critically analyse some of the limitations of this methodology. Jones continues with considerations for methodological approaches, in this case particularly connected to the ethical concerns of undertaking qualitative research on forced migration in small island developing states. When it comes to small island states, size does matter; the challenges related to elite participation in research on sensitive topics are exacerbated. Connecting theory with the practicalities of research methodology, Jones provides useful insights to the particularities of conducting interviews in small island states. Four articles address the challenges connecting research and policy, exploring how research can be activist in orientation and rigorous in knowledge production, the unintended consequences of policy relevant research, what constitutes relevance to policy, how policy-irrelevant research can produce new knowledge on peoples and processes, and how we can better bridge the tension between scholarly and practical impact. Together, these articles underpin the idea that a stronger understanding of the process of policy-making and implementation can help migration researchers effectively engage with policy, policymakers, and practitioners. Benson, Temprosa and Shlebah’s work on policy relevance provides a unique addition to the dialogue on bridging research and practice. Their article not only weaves together reflections on the relevance and import of ‘active’ research approaches in forced migration research but presents a case for the importance of policy irrelevant research. While our focus tends to be on increasing connections to policy, contributing to evidence-based approaches, Benson, Temprosa and Shlebah’s work details how policy-oriented research may constrain the objects of study, as policy may act as a filter, or blinder, to the methodological and analytical possibilities of inquiries not tethered to policy interests. Also attending to the aim of improving responses to the circumstances of migrants, including refugees, Shillinglaw argues that greater academic and political attention should be paid to the detail of humanitarian practice and its outcomes. Using empirical evidence from the island of Lesvos, Shillinglaw considers how non-governmental organisations operate within the “everyday politics of aid.” It shows that rather than being shaped by top-down policy impositions, a humanitarian space emerges from the ongoing and daily negotiations of those working directly with affected populations, as well as migrants themselves. Lawale and Poon conclude our article section, each examining practical policy issues – refugee integration and non-refoulement, respectively. Lawale details the institutional challenges with respect to refugee integration in South Africa, where the failure of the Ministry of Home Affairs to manage the interaction between international protection laws and the municipal laws of the country all too often results in municipal authorities and citizens of South Africa acting against refugees in contravention of the provisions of the Refugee Act. Demonstrating another challenge related to state and international refugee law, Poon examines the extraterritorial application of the principle of non-refoulement on the high seas. Poon argues that, regardless of the proximity of an individual to the border or territory of a State or the individual’s legal status as determined by law, States are nonetheless responsible for complying with non-refoulement obligations, even if that means a duty not to refoule asylum claimants and refugees on the high seas. The practitioner reports from Rebelo and Grundler and Gutierrez share accountings of the challenges asylum seekers, as well as volunteers and activists supporting asylum seekers, confront. Based on five years of work with asylum seekers in Europe, Rebelo details the role of solidarity networks in supporting asylum seekers navigate the asylum process and shares how policy action against the allies of asylum seekers sought to dismantle those networks. Grundler and Gutierrez identify problems minors face in their asylum process, such as lack of assistance and access to documents, issues with document verification, and lack of financial resources. This highlights the need for child-sensitive procedures in the visa application process; in the absence of such procedures, the right to family reunification may be rendered de facto inaccessible to minors, resulting in a serious protection gap. Nungsari, Flanders and Chuah present findings from an interdisciplinary research workshop held in Kuala Lumpur in 2018, adding to limited knowledge base on practitioners’ experiences and perspectives on social interventions with refugees in Southeast Asia. Based on the workshop outcomes, Nungsari, Flanders and Chuah suggest a research process flowchart to aid researchers and practitioners in maximizing their impact through policy and advocacy, while at the same time partnering with refugee communities to better serve their needs.