The key research question for this proposed study concerns the perspectives of refugees and asylum seekers regarding the differences between their expectations and the reality of their migration experience. This is an area of interest because it has the potential to facilitate the understanding of political leaders and program managers regarding the point of view of the refugees and asylum seekers affected by policies and decisions. The definition of refugee typically refers to the United Nations Refugee Convention and its identification of a genuine fear of persecution, while the term asylum seeker refers to those individuals who do not meet the standards defining a refugee but have well-founded fears of harm or danger that prevent them from returning home (Gibney, 2004, 8).
Background
A brief review of literature relating to refugee and asylum seekers indicates that one of the greatest issues from a government and regulatory perspective is health care. Asylum seekers and refugees tend to have exacerbated health care needs relating to the previous health care available in their country of origin, issues in accessing health care while in the migratory state, as well as physical and mental conditions relating to the extended period of stress and environmental conditions (Burnett & Peel, 2001; Gerritsen, Bramsen, Devillé, van Willigen, Hovens, & Van Der Ploeg, 2006; Silove, Steel, McGorry, & Mohan, 1998); There is also a smaller base of research relating to discursive analysis of media constructs of refugee and asylum seekers, which are typically use negative connotation and framing (Gabrielatos & Baker, 2008; Baker, Gabrielatos, Khosravinik, Krzyżanowski, McEnery & Wodak, 2008). This may in fact be relevant to another point which is made in the scholarly literature, which is that the response to such persons by the local population Even when a state or government embraces its duties towards asylum seekers and refugees, the same is not always true of the citizens of that country, and these groups can often receive a less than welcome reception when they reach the destination country (Louis, Duck, Terry, Schuller, & Lalonde, 2007).
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One perspective which is not easily found in the literature is that of the refugees and asylum seekers themselves. Limited studies were found relating to the identity and school experiences of refugee children (Bash & Zezlina‐Phillips, 2006), the perspectives of young refugee on psychosocial well-being (Earnest, Housen, T& Gillieatt, 2007) and a study on integration focusing on refugees and asylum seekers’ perspectives on urban greenspaces in Great Britain (Rishbeth & Finney, 2006). Recent research reveals that the perspective of refugees and asylum seekers is only being studied to the extent that it impacts on health and social interventions and outcomes (see for example Anderson, Anderson, Friedrich & Teichert, 2017; Mirza, Harrison, Chang, Salo, & Birman, 2018). These represent the perspective of stakeholders, but with an emphasis on payors and aggregate statistics that inform policy analysis. There was no evaluation of programs to support this population from their perspectives.
While there is extensive recognition of the psychological impacts of the migration of refugees and asylum seekers, there is a clear research gap in terms of how stress and coping in that transition are viewed by the refugees and asylum seekers themselves apart from limited studies of school aged children. This is an area of considerable importance, not only because the voice of a major stakeholder is missing from the body of research, but also because clarifying these perspectives can provide insights to the situation and possible interventions that would be acceptable by different groups of refugees and asylum seekers.
Methodology
The survey will use qualitative methods to answer the research questions. The collection of data will take one of two forms; collection through delivery of an online survey and personal interviews. Online surveys provide convenient and cost-effective approaches to collecting data from specific populations. The recruitment of respondents or participants from this target population may be challenging. For this reason, a purposive convenience sample will be the main approach to selection. This will facilitate ensuring that there are sufficient participants to provide for the representative validity of the results. Time will be taken to determine the best ways to market participation in the survey. Some possibilities include using a third-party service that provides for respondents to order such as Amazon mTurk or using social media postings to try to engage people who would be targeted as participants. A survey involving open-ended questions would be followed by either further questions by email, or a personal interview which takes place either physically in person or by video. This would provide for canvassing the sample for the population of interest regarding a wide range of issues, and then returning to those that are indicated to be the most important to the participants.
The relevant conceptual approach in this case is grounded theory, which provides for exploration of factors that have not been predetermined by the researcher. This is particularly important as the use of a tight framework may interfere with recognition of the perspective of the participants in the sample. Grounded theory uses findings as the basis for finding more questions. A technique which can be used to facilitate analysis is referred to by Memon, Umrani, and Pathan (2017) as constant comparison. This is a variation on the traditional iterative analysis of transcripts of interview-type data because there is a conscious determination in each round of analysis. Analysis begins with determining themes after several read throughs of transcripts, or in this case open-ended survey questions. These will be categorised, and colour coded based on themes as they emerge. Because there will be multiple round of analysis of that data as well as additional data clarifying responses this is an iterative process which takes some time to complete. The result will be a summary of themes as reported by the former refugees and asylum seekers, and implications and considerations considering those findings.
Significance and relevance
The project is significant because billions of dollars are spent annually on the registration, verification, and care of refugees and asylum seekers in developed countries, and yet the programs do not reflect or necessarily understand the expectations or the paradigm of the target group, nor do they understand what they could have done differently from the point of view of their client base. The academic literature is lacking the perspectives and expectations of refugees and asylum seekers, and how these may shape responses and navigation of systems in destination countries. It is also a matter of stakeholder theory and social justice. Stakeholder theories proposes that all who have an interest in a program or plan of action, that is it might change or impact their interests, should be consulted. It is relatively unknown how refugees and asylum seekers perceived the process of migration in terms of their expectations, and their reflection and assessment today regarding those expectations. These can be important by providing insights that help to improve or streamline programs that administrate or serve refugees and asylum seekers. In terms of the contribution to the psychological knowledge base, there is very little information about the constructs and cognitive facets of refugees and asylum seekers. Such narratives will provide important window into their world and may contribute to the design of interventions intended to support this population. This fits with the program requirements of new research that contributes to the field and to the community.
- Anderson, J., Anderson, A., Friedrich, N., & Teichert, L. (2017). “You Guys Should Offer the Program more Often!”: Some Perspectives from Working Alongside Immigrant and Refugee Families in a Bilingual Family Literacy Program. In Literacy in the Early Years (pp. 63-78). Springer, Singapore.
- Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., Khosravinik, M., Krzyżanowski, M., McEnery, T., & Wodak, R. (2008). A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse & Society, 19(3), 273-306.
- Bash, L., & Zezlina‐Phillips, E. (2006). Identity, boundary and schooling: Perspectives on the experiences and perceptions of refugee children. Intercultural Education, 17(1), 113-128.
- Burnett, A., & Peel, M. (2001). Asylum seekers and refugees in Britain: Health needs of asylum seekers and refugees. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 322(7285), 544.
- Earnest, J., Housen, T., & Gillieatt, S. (2007). Adolescent and young refugee perspectives on psychosocial well-being. ISBN, 1(74067), 5193.
- Gabrielatos, C., & Baker, P. (2008). Fleeing, sneaking, flooding: A corpus analysis of discursive constructions of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press, 1996-2005. Journal of English linguistics, 36(1), 5-38.
- Gerritsen, A. A., Bramsen, I., Devillé, W., van Willigen, L. H., Hovens, J. E., & Van Der Ploeg, H. M. (2006). Physical and mental health of Afghan, Iranian and Somali asylum seekers and refugees living in the Netherlands. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 41(1), 18-26.
- Gibney, M. J. (2004). The ethics and politics of asylum: liberal democracy and the response to refugees. Cambridge University Press.
- Louis, W. R., Duck, J. M., Terry, D. J., Schuller, R. A., & Lalonde, R. N. (2007). Why do citizens want to keep refugees out? Threats, fairness and hostile norms in the treatment of asylum seekers. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37(1), 53-73.
- Memon, S., Umrani, S., & Pathan, H. (2017). Application of constant comparison method in social sciences: a useful technique to analyze interviews. Grassroots, 51(1).
- Mirza, M. Q., Harrison, E. A., Chang, H. C., Salo, C. D., & Birman, D. (2018). Community perspectives on substance use among Bhutanese and Iraqi refugees resettled in the United States. Journal of prevention & intervention in the community, 46(1), 43-60.
- Rishbeth, C., & Finney, N. (2006). Novelty and nostalgia in urban greenspace: Refugee perspectives. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 97(3), 281-295.
- Silove, D., Steel, Z., McGorry, P., & Mohan, P. (1998). Trauma exposure, postmigration stressors, and symptoms of anxiety, depression and post‐traumatic stress in Tamil asylum‐seekers: comparison with refugees and immigrants. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 97(3), 175-181.
