Conducting health research with resettled refugees in Australia: field sites, ethics, and methods

Abstract

Research involving resettled refugees presents many complexities. In particular, how do we engage ethically with research participants and also ensure that the data we produce is rigorous and makes a productive contribution to knowledge about refugee health? This chapter reflects on two qualitative research projects involving people from refugee backgrounds who have resettled in Victoria, Australia: one project with refugee-background women living in the capital city, Melbourne; another with refugee-background youth living in Bendigo, a regional city. Both projects focused on refugee settlement and psychosocial health. Focusing on three key aspects of the research process: conceptualizing the field site, ethics in practice and qualitative research methods, we suggest that the dual imperatives of refugee research—significance to people with refugee backgrounds and relevant agencies, institutions and governments, and ethical and rigorous research practice—are best served by a reflexive, sensitive and creative relationship with both the research process and with refugee-background participants.