Showing Up and Opening Up: Conducting Research With and About Refugee Resettlement Organizations

Showing Up and Opening Up: Conducting Research With and About Refugee Resettlement Organizations

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Academic Unit

College of Arts and Sciences

Publication Date

4-2024

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This article uses research conducted with and about refugee resettlement agencies in traditional and nontraditional destinations to critically assess the opportunities and constraints that social scientists encounter when conducting research on refugee incorporation experiences. Drawing on ethnographic field notes and reflections from two qualitative research projects in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest examining refugee incorporation postresettlement, we analyze how the geographic and institutional contexts in the case studies impacted research outcomes and differences in refugee participants’ showing up and opening up during data collection. We describe how the priorities of refugee resettlement agencies, along with the social locations and positionality of researchers, shaped our relationships and negotiations with institutional gatekeepers, as well as how refugee participants responded to the research. We show how conducting community-based research can introduce overlapping and conflicting reciprocal moral obligations between researchers, refugee participants, and refugee-serving organizations that ultimately shape the research process, decisions, and outcomes.

Journal Title

Geographical Review

Volume

114

Issue

5

Beginning Page Number

541

Last Page Number

560

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/00167428.2024.2335386

Showing Up and Opening Up: Conducting Research With and About Refugee Resettlement Organizations

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