Power, Participation, and ‘peer researchers’: Addressing Gaps in Refugee Research Ethics Guidance

Abstract

Abstract Driven by efforts to recognize the agency of refugees and thus the importance of their participation in research about their lives, refugees are increasingly being engaged to work as collaborators and assistants during research in refugee camps and settlements. Yet whilst academic research attends to the ethics of research with refugees, existing guidance fails to recognize or attempt to mitigate the specific ways in which refugees working as research assistants may be impacted by taking on this role. This is a particularly important issue for consideration in research within camps and settlements, where refugee researchers are embedded within complex relations of power that include communities, governance structures, and humanitarian agencies. Drawing on our experiences of carrying out research in Nakivale settlement in Uganda in 2017, we show some of the challenges that refugee researchers experience and reflect on the practical implications for efforts to undertake more ethical research.