National Mediation Conference Melbourne, 2014

Refugee & Migrants & Conflict Engagement –

methodological issues – Anet Kate

• ‘Refugee’: The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees defines who is a refugee, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum.

• Article 1 of the Convention, as amended by the 1967 Protocol, provides the definition of a refugee:

• A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race,…

… religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or …is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

Refugees are people who:

• arrive in a country as asylum seekers, and who apply

for and are granted refugee status, or

• are selected as refugees under a UNHCR Quota

programme.

UNHCR Definitions…

Convention refugees typically fall into one of seven categories: • legal and physical protection needs • medical needs • survivors of violence and torture • women at risk • family reunification • children and adolescents • elderly refugees.

Refugee resettlement in NZ

“Each year New Zealand accepts 750 refugees for resettlement through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as part of its commitment to being a ‘good international citizen’.” (NZ Immigration Fact Sheet, 2014)

• How ‘good’ is this really?

• NZ could do much more and has the resources.

• Perhaps the same is true for Australia (?)

Our Research Project Aims

• To examine contemporary dispute resolution mechanisms commonly used by refugee and migrant communities in Auckland, N.Z.

• To investigate whether those communities found their conflict resolution engagment effective.

• To explore any alternative options and preferences identified by the participants.

Literature on resettlement

• Significant literature in this field documents difficulties faced by such communities in adapting to life in a new (often 3rd) country by the time they settle in NZ / Australia.

• These include:-

• - lack of access to formal justice mechanisms.

• - often no culturally relevant, appropriate, and sensitive dispute resolution mechanisms available.

First paper – methodology

• Challenges: • For decades articles on refugee/asylum seeker/migrant

research identify the particular challenges of such interviews.

• After finding engagement issues ourselves, we also decided to concentrate on the survey methods for this presentation.

• I will look briefly and in summary at some of these identified issues and see how relevant they have been to our project interviews.

Regina Pernice

• In an article in Professional Psychology: Research & Practice in 1994 , Pernice commented on the research methods in NZ when interviewing Pacific Island refugees and migrants: “a growing number of psychologists are becoming involved in research with migrants, particularly those from developing countries…”

• Pernice found 6 main areas of challenges in research with refugees and immigrants.

6 Main Challenges

1) Contextual differences between migrants and the receiving society.

2) Conceptual problems with translation of instruments.

3) Sampling difficulties.

4) Linguistic problems.

5) Observation of etiquette.

6) Personality characteristics of researchers.

Once over lightly

1) Context: involves, e.g. the differences between refugees from war-torn countries and societies at peace.

• Members of the Cambodian or Burmese communities in NZ have often spent time in Thai refugee camps: trauma suffered caused by sexual violence, poverty and lack of basic resources.

• Extreme camp living conditions and uncertainty before migration or UNHCR quota selection.

Context… • Previous experience of recruitment to fight in

wars, being persecuted for beliefs, belonging to opposition parties, military involvement, religious or ethnic based affiliations.

• Pacific Island communities in NZ have had the ‘dawn raid’ experience or heard of it (Samoan immigrants – woken up and deported).

• Often such migrant or refugee groups have later refused to participate in research for a variety of reasons, such as unfamiliarity with a non-invasive or non-exploitative motivation by researchers.

2. Conceptual problems

• Definitions: ‘Refugee’ ‘migrant’? - applicable.

• Appropriate use of instruments, such as psychological tests & self-rating scales – not applicable as we did not use these. (Most of these assume participants able to read; concepts often change or shift according to the translation –a process).

3. Sampling difficulties

• Lots of practical problems faced – such as is ‘snowballing’ the best way; some writers say this is flawed; depends on whether the research claims to be quantitative/representative or qualitative. Ours was small and qualitative, so not so much of an issue.

• Snowballing worked quite well to a point; and still meant not all of the desired 10 communities have been engaged with.

4. Linguistic problems

• When interpreters are needed, things don’t always translate exactly.

• E.g. Indo-Chinese languages have a distinctive system of personal pronouns for the English I and you. social hierarchies by denoting gender, age, marital status, social distance, personal achievement, & official rank discrepancies between the speaker and the person addressed. Failure to use the correct one is a serious breach of etiquette.

• As we decided to interview only leaders of R/NM communities no interpreters were needed.

• Additionally, a sequence of actions must be followed correctly, such as identifying community leaders and working out the correct order in which to approach them.

• Our recruitment method: the current chairperson of the Auckland Refugee Community Coalition contacted; we described the scope of the research and our interest in and inter-cultural experience to attempt to gain trust and credibility.

• Interviewer study and direct experience with South-East Asian, African, Chinese, … geo-political situations & cultures.

Etiquette..

• A degree of inter-cultural competence (e.g.responsiveness to suggestions by participants).

• Realistically discussing concrete (if potential) benefits of participation – such as feedback to government agencies..networking resources.

• Meeting leader expectations of an ongoing dialogue and meaningful contributions to those communities – ‘reciprocal benefits’ – a appropriate issue for most/all of the communities engaged with.

6. Personality Characteristics of researchers - summary

• Perhaps the most important factor of all is this meeting this last challenge.

• Summary of desired characteristics of the interviewer in this kind of project:-

• Open-mindedness, having accurate perceptions of the social contexts of the interviewer and the migrant group, minimal prejudice or ethnocentrism.

Personal characteristics…

• Non-judgmentalism • Authenticity • Inter-cultural empathy • Callan, 1988, states that while these personality

characteristics are distinguishing features of successful cross-cultural researchers, they are not a substitute for the elements of professional competence.

• Ability to be ‘in time’ rather than being ‘on time’ – knowing the difference of this and not interpreting lateness or non-attendance from a Western, sequential time, framework…

The final research results..

• As advertised, and bearing all the above and especially the last item in mind, this may take some more time….

• Perhaps in 2016…??

Haere ra! • Questions – if

sequential time allows

• Haere ra!