Ethical and methodological challenges of conducting research of ‘asylum institutional elites’

Abstract

Research with elite groups poses a number of challenges for researchers. The study of asylum institutional elites brings even further difficulties, considering the political interests surrounding the topic. This paper considers these difficulties in the context of studying asylum institutional elites in Brazil in the author’s own PhD research, and provides the answers found to overcome some of these challenges. Albeit important, being able to access closed-door meetings, to observe the daily political plays and struggles that reverberate on how refugees are produced, managed, seen and controlled, creates a challenging ethical backdrop to ensure the care responsibility that should underscore any ethical research standards. As such, this paper particularly focuses on how a double role in the field – as a professional and a researcher – can contribute to and enrich institutional research, and how to overcome the methodological and ethical challenges of doing research this way.