Protocol Paper: Conducting Life History Interviews to Explore the Journeys of People with Disability from Syrian and Iraqi Refugee Backgrounds Settling in Australia.

Angela Dew

doi:10.3390/ijerph18157978

Abstract

This paper outlines a research protocol to be undertaken with people with disability from Syrian and Iraqi refugee backgrounds settling in Australia. Since 2012, the numbers of people with disability arriving from these countries has increased with limited understanding about the impact of their refugee journeys on their settlement. The aim of this small-scale exploratory study is to learn about the journeys made by people with disability from Syrian and Iraqi refugee backgrounds from their countries of origin, through transit countries, to Australia in order to understand the impact of these journeys on inclusion and participation in Australian society. This participatory action research study employs a bilingual co-researcher with disability from a Syrian background to conduct life history interviews with up to five participants. Participants will recount their journeys with a focus on the impact of their disability on this experience. The study design is informed by BenEzer and Zetter’s 2014 seminal paper on the importance of the refugee journey to settlement. This study has the potential to foreground the voices and experiences of people with disability from refugee backgrounds who are often absent, silenced or excluded in research and, in so doing, hopefully impact Australian refugee policy.

Highlights

IntroductionIn 2008 Australia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) [2], with a subsequent shift in public policy towards increased resettlement of refugees with disability [3,4]
Building on previous work conducted by the author and colleagues [15,16], and applying BenEzer and Zetter’s [13] conceptual challenges to this previously unrecognized group, the aim of this study is to learn about the journeys made by people with disability from
The use of a participatory action research (PAR) approach will (i) produce knowledge and action that is directly useful to individuals and organisations and (ii) increase community awareness of complex needs, problems, attitudes or behaviour [18], and in the case of this study, the journeys made by people with disability from Syrian and

Summary

Introduction

In 2008 Australia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) [2], with a subsequent shift in public policy towards increased resettlement of refugees with disability [3,4]. For this group, in 2012, the Australian Government streamlined the health waiver for humanitarian visa applicants so that the costs of health or community care services were no longer assessed [5]. A 2019 Refugee Council of Australia report highlighted that very little is known about the impact of disability on the resettlement experiences of refugees or the understanding and resources of local communities to facilitate successful settlement [8]

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Conclusion