Ethical and methodological reflections on research exploring refugee family reunification in Brazil

Abstract

Ethical discussions have become key to Refugee Studies. However, most of this literature focuses on research with refugees in developed countries or refugee camps in the Majority World countries. Recommendations and experiences of researchers in the Global North do not completely grasp the challenges and opportunities for researchers from the Majority World conducting research with refugees in the Majority World. This paper discusses my experience of “doing-no-harm” research with 20 refugees in the city of São Paulo, Brazil in 2018. These interviews allowed me to understand the lived experience of refugees applying for family reunification in a first asylum country in Latin America. They also demanded new ethical and methodological decisions and dialogues. My reflection contributes to this literature on ethics and refugee studies and “ethics in practice” by bringing new ethical and methodological reflections considering trust-building, sampling, reflexivity, amplifying refugees’ voices and confidentiality from a South-South perspective.