“I Look at You and See You Looking at Me”: Role Boundaries in a Dynamic Research Relationship in Qualitative Health Research With Refugees

Abstract

In institutional ethical and deontological guidelines, there is a prevailing, static understanding of the research partnership, with a clear boundary between researcher and participant. In this article, we argue that such a static understanding may run the risk of impeding the development of an enhanced contextual and dynamic intersubjective understanding of the research partnership and its impact on the growing importance of role boundaries in qualitative research. Drawing from a refugee health study on trauma and forced migration, we explore the different ways in which participants and the researcher engaged with the researcher’s multiple positions and role boundaries. In doing so, we aim to contribute to a reflective research practice by providing tools to recognize signs of potential harm and offer potential vehicles of reconstruction and agency within the intersubjective space of a dynamic research relationship, within a continuous, shared renegotiation process of role boundaries.

(Mis)recognition in the Therapeutic Alliance: The Experience of Mental Health Interpreters Working With Refugees in U.K. Clinical Settings

“…The issues relating to the interviewer’s multiple positions and roles, and the potential risks for the interviewees and interviewer, were carefully considered in the development of the ethics application. We also, however, recognized the limits of ethical codes in addressing dynamic relational interactions and the importance, therefore, of the authors engaging in reflective research practice through ongoing discussions across the course of the interviews (de Smet et al, 2020).…”

A contextualized perspective on research participation in collaborative refugee research: A multi-site exploration of relational dynamics in collaborative research.

“…However, during the course of the study, they started to explicitly raise matters of structural violence in relation to institutional actors. In this respect, it is important to acknowledge that the time span and the intensity of research participation varied across our case studies in this analysis, from only a couple of hours in focus groups to much longer and more extensive engagements, with potentially important repercussions in the development of research relationships, and with the renegotiation of role boundaries within the research relationship in collaborative research (de Smet et al, 2020; Mayan & Daum, 2016). Although our cross-case analysis generated a contextualized understanding of research participation as a dynamic and interactive process, future studies may further explore the particular role of the development of the research relationship as a possibly new relational context in the way research participation is performed.…”

Mental Health of Refugee and Non-refugee Migrant Young People in European Secondary Education: The Role of Family Separation, Daily Material Stress and Perceived Discrimination in Resettlement

“…A second strength of the study lies in its relatively large sample size obtained in an otherwise difficult to reach study population (Enticott et al, 2017;Fête et al, 2019). In line with scholars emphasizing the importance of autonomy and agency of refugee and migrant participants in research practices (e.g., de Smet et al, 2020), a third strength of the study lies in the way it engaged in an active, tailored and iterative process of obtaining and negotiating informed consent with participants, as well as with their parents. In addition, the translation of study materials (informed consent forms, questionnaires) and the collaboration with qualified interpreters in several countries and in different stages of the study, aimed to foster this process of a shared understanding and negotiation of research participation.…”