Questioning the ethics and rationale of refugee research

Forced displacement is as old as humanity. Throughout history, human beings have been forced to move from one place to another due to persecution, wars, economic issues and for other reasons. In today’s world such movement is reaching historic proportions: 37,000 people a day are forced to leave their homes due to conflicts and persecution, according to recent statistics from the UN Refugee Agency or UNHCR.

The huge refugee crisis has had inevitable political, economic, social and educational impacts at the national and international levels. These impacts have provided scholars in various academic disciplines with a study topic that includes rich data, endless controversial discussions and humanitarian drama.

This has resulted in an enormous amount of research activity. It is possible to come across a call for a special issue on refugees by academic journals that have never included an article on this topic before as well as high-fee conferences asking for abstract submissions on refugee research and certificate- or degree-awarding study programmes on refugees in a broad range of academic departments.

An increasing scholarly interest is visible in the field of higher education studies as well, with refugees’ access to higher education a trendy research topic.

Needless to say, increasing academic focus on refugees in general and their access to higher education specifically is a good thing since the more research there is, the more refugee voices will be heard.

Nevertheless, as it is an emerging and evolving field, scholarly discussions about the philosophy, rationale and ethics of refugee research are essential for its healthy development.

In this respect, I want to present several of my own perspectives. My objective is not to persuade or dissuade anyone about how to do or not do refugee research but to share my perspective as I believe that academic knowledge advances when we share our observations.

1. Refugee research is not an exercise of orientalism

When some Western scholars compare refugees’ access to higher education in Western countries to that of refugees in developing countries, they intentionally or unintentionally build an image that the West does it better. They present developed countries as life-savers and the refugees who access higher education there as fortunate individuals who cannot get a similar opportunity elsewhere.

This, as a result, leads to the inevitable inference that refugees who access higher education in developing countries are not very well served. This reminds me of Edward Said’s description of the “modern orientalist” who says to the non-Western world: “You have failed, you have gone wrong.”

We should be fair and state that the real refugee burden is carried on the shoulders of developing countries. As the Global Trends Report of the UNHCR indicates, 84% of refugees are hosted in developing regions, and a third of these are hosted by the least developed economies.

As I discussed in my previous article, some developing and emerging countries are already doing a great job by enhancing refugees’ access to higher education, something which is not done by most developed countries.

For example, Turkey, Lebanon and Ethiopia have provided respectively 27,000, 7,000 and 2,300 refugees with access to higher education.

Rather than donning an orientalist hat, it would be fairer if we appreciated the sacrifice of developing and emerging countries despite their quite limited resources.

2. Refugee research is a humanitarian act

People do research for various reasons, but is the increase in refugee studies today in large part the result of it being a ‘trendy’ topic?

There are, for instance, academic departments at universities that have opened degree-awarding programmes with the expectation of increasing enrolments, even though they do not have professors with a refugee research background.

I have encountered scholars who have begun doing refugee research just because they think that there are more grants and funded project options in it.

I respect individual and institutional academic motives. However, I suggest we should always bear in mind that refugees leave their homes due to factors that are out of their control and they have very bad experiences because most of the world do not listen to what they have to say.

The short life of Alan Kurdi, a Syrian refugee who died at the age of three while crossing the Aegean Sea for a better life, is not only a mark of shame for the whole world but a lesson for us to remember that we need to ensure more refugees’ voices are heard. We should work for other Alan Kurdis to live longer and study at a university.

3. Forced displacement is a global issue with local features

Some studies focus on refugees’ access to higher education in a particular country – usually a developed one – and make universal inferences based upon findings in that country only.

There is no doubt that forced displacement is a global problem, although its burden is not shared equally. Nevertheless, it should be noted that refugees’ access to higher education is highly dependent on the political, economic, academic, social and bureaucratic procedures of the country they are in.

For example, a refugee in one country might be given the status of “a guest under temporary protection”, while another might be provided with a “refugee status” or even a “citizenship” in another country. The status they have and other local features of refugee life may enhance or hinder their access to higher education. Therefore, rather than overgeneralising the refugee experience, we need to keep specific contexts in mind.

4. Refugee students and scholars are not traditional international students and scholars

It is very common for universities to apply the same admission and recruitment requirements to refugee students and scholars as they do to other international students and scholars.

As Hans de Wit, Betty Leask and I discussed in an article in which we introduced the concept of ‘forced internationalisation’, refugee students and scholars are not typical international students and scholars who have well-documented academic credentials, funding or foreign language proficiency.

And when they access universities, providing them with traditional counselling and psychological services may not be enough, as they may have experienced serious psycho-social difficulties as a result of fleeing conflict in their home countries.

Similarly, when they get a degree from a university, they might need special career and alumni support to be able to stand on their own feet as they may not be able to go back to their home countries due to ongoing conflict and they may not have a social environment where they can get the support they need.

5. Refugee research needs more in situ study

While some scholars in developed countries focus too much on refugee students and scholars in developed countries, where a minority of refugees are hosted, some other Western scholars do online research about refugees in developing regions. In this way, they make inferences about what is going on in refugees’ lives in developing countries.

Of course, these attempts should not be discouraged as the findings of any research study are valuable. However, as the vast majority of refugees are hosted in developing regions and are likely to continue to be hosted there since most developed countries do not seem willing to accept them, it is time to develop refugee research in developing regions.

For instance, as the statistics of the UNHCR reveal, 80% of refugees live in countries neighbouring their home countries. Focusing on those countries with the least developed economies, establishing migration research centres and conducting on-site research to explore refugees’ experiences there would guard against the risks of focusing solely on an elite minority in developed countries.

6. Refugees’ access to higher education is not the ultimate goal

It could be inferred from some studies that when refugees access higher education, their problems will be solved. That is not the case. The real problem is forced displacement.

In today’s post-modern world, people somewhere around the world are forced to leave their homes. If we imply or state that our goal is to enhance refugees’ access to higher education, we may ignore the real problem and normalise forced displacement.

Thus our ultimate goal should be the end of forced displacement and absolute freedom for every person so they can enjoy access to higher education in their home countries or anywhere else.

7. Forced displacement ends where it starts

Some scholars unrealistically think that enrolling refugee students and hiring refugee academics will end forced displacement. There is no doubt that this helps refugee students and scholars start a new life and settle down somewhere, but this scenario applies to very few of the total refugee population.

For example, Turkey hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees and has given more than 27,000 Syrians access to higher education. However, due to the ongoing war in Syria, the refugee influx to Turkey from Syria is still ongoing. Moreover, there are currently more than two million Syrian teenagers under the age of 18 in Turkey, which will lead to more demand for higher education soon.

It does not seem possible to provide every refugee with access to higher education, due to this dramatic increase in the numbers. The enrolment of a small number of refugees in universities in other countries is not a permanent solution to forced displacement. The real issue is to end displacement in the origin country by stopping the conflict which causes people to flee.

The above points reflect my perception of the current trend of refugee research in higher education. As mentioned, my objective is not to criticise anything or teach any lessons but instead to start a constructive discussion to ensure the healthy development of this emerging field’s identity.

Hakan Ergin is a lecturer at Istanbul University, Turkey, and a former postdoctoral scholar at the Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, United States. E-mail: hakan.ergin1@yahoo.com