Voices of Refugee Youth: Reflections on a Participatory, Youth-Centered Study

Abstract

Involving young refugees in the research process has significant potential to address current gaps in refugee research in a rigorous, equitable, and empowering way (Clark 2004; Haile, Meloni, and Rezaie 2020). This field note is a report on Voices of Refugee Youth, a research initiative in Pakistan and Rwanda that aims to build the evidence base for postprimary refugee education, while also increasing young refugees’ access to and representation in this field of research. The purpose of this field note is to reflect critically on the participatory approach adopted by the initiative, whereby young refugees work as coresearchers who advise, collect data, and contribute to the deliverables. In the note we highlight the benefits of this approach, but also problematize it to offer valuable lessons about involving young refugees meaningfully in the research process. The authors conclude that participation must be approached with flexibility in order to facilitate different levels of participation, based on the skills or knowledge level of the young refugees in question. It is critical that participation is accompanied by rigorous training that responds to participants’ contexts and experience levels, and addresses ethical issues such as positionality-based bias.