Mutual benefits: The lessons learned from a community based participatory research project with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and foster carers

Abstract

Mutual benefits: The lessons learned from a community based participatory research project with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and foster carers. Children and Youth Services Review, 92 pp. 105-113.For guidance on citations see FAQs.

Challenging the deportation regime: reflections on the research encounter with undocumented refugee children in Sweden

“…As it happened, the Ombudsman was deeply moved by the films, and sent a recorded video response to the children the next day that all participants at the workshop watched together. At that time, I had a strong sense that this gave proper recognition and respect to children's own stories, in a similar way to research on digital stories and photo voice created with young people experiencing psychosis and lone refugee young people (Boydell et al 2017;Lenette, Cox, and Brough 2015;Rogers, Carr, and Hickman 2018). The participating children at the workshop were told that their accounts could be viewed by the general public as well as persons in decision-making and political positions.…”

“…Children in the present research experienced gross injustice and inequality and it was important to not just acknowledge this as 'expressions of children's agency', but to respect it and find ways to 'give back' to participants . This entailed contributing to children's agency by empowering them to articulate their 'hidden' accounts and, if the child thought it appropriate (and at no risk to the child), to disseminate their accounts to relevant public and political 'publics' (Rogers, Carr, and Hickman 2018). Below I turn to considerations of these issues for the research methodology and ethics.…”

“…This article is based on anthropological research examining children's experiences of 'deportability' and 'daily strategies' in response to their situations in Sweden (Wahlström Smith 2018). Inspired by participatory and action research, the study rationale was to explore ways in which it was possible to 'give back' to the study participants and the study population, such as informing policy and practice and contribute to social and political change Rogers, Carr, and Hickman 2018). It also sought to pay special attention to children's participatory status by involving undocumented refugees as active partners in the research process .…”

“…It also sought to pay special attention to children's participatory status by involving undocumented refugees as active partners in the research process . Participatory involvement in research ranges on a spectrum from consulting participants on the project rationale on one hand and drawing on respondents as equal partners in the entire research process on the other (Rogers, Carr, and Hickman 2018). In this project, four participating families were consulted on the project rationale, aims and methodology in the beginning of the research.…”

“…The article examines the ethnographic research encounter with children in undocumented migration who risk deportation. It responds to recent calls to take seriously children's everyday politics and lived rights (Skelton 2010;Lind 2017a;Karlsson 2019), arguing that a political analysis of children's accounts and experiences entails not only the researcher's ability to interpret children's actions in political terms, but also a responsibility to facilitate and contribute to them in public spheres (Spyrou 2011;Rogers, Carr, and Hickman 2018). The overall purpose of this article is thus to encourage scholars to not only acknowledge children's capacity for agency and political engagement in theory and analysis, but to be explicit about how this acknowledgement is addressed in moral and practical terms in the research encounter.…”