Author:

Keywords:

Tanzania, Refugees, Participatory Action Research, Hidden populations, Dar es Salaam, Research methods

Abstract:

Doing research among clandestine populations is always fraught with potential issues of power dynamics and (mis)trust between the researchers and the community members. When this clandestine population consists of political refugees the research process becomes even more complex, and the absolute necessity of information confidentiality and subject anonymity makes using participatory research methods an even greater challenge. This paper relates the strategies I applied to ensure an ethical approach when researching African refugees in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, while equally focusing on the necessity to share research results aiming to ultimately improve urban refugees’ economic, physical and psychological living conditions.