Ethical issues in research with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children

Abstract

This paper offers reflections on some of the ethical and methodological issues involved in doing research with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Drawing upon a Scottish Refugee Council funded research project with unaccompanied minors and service providers, I highlight some of the complications involved in conducting ethical research with unaccompanied children. Focusing upon issues of ethical approval and research design, access and obtaining informed consent, privacy and confidentiality and finally dissemination, I demonstrate the ways in which conducting ethical research is often context dependant and varies according to the particular situation, needs and experiences of the children involved.

Keywords:

• unaccompanied asylum-seeking children
• ethics
• research design
• consent
• confidentiality
• dissemination

Acknowledgements

The funding of Scottish Refugee Council made this research project possible. I am indebted to all of the unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who shared their experiences with me (and the interpreters who helped facilitate this process), as well as the service providers who agreed to participate in the research and grant access to the children they work with. Many thanks also to Malcolm Hill, the principal investigator of this project for his project management and guidance on all aspects of this research. I am extremely grateful to Nancy Bell, Malcolm Hill and Sabrina Mazzoni for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. I use the term ‘children’ in this report in order to emphasise the importance of recognising unaccompanied asylum-seeking children as children first and migrants second (Save the Children 2004, Crawley 2005, Hopkins and Hill 2006). This also emphasises the importance of recognising that unaccompanied minors have particular needs as children.

2. Before applying for ethical approval, I also applied for CRB clearance.

3. Thanks to Nicola Ross for helping me think through these issues.

4. All of the names used in this paper are pseudonyms chosen by the children themselves.