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Negotiating Anonymity, Informed Consent and ‘Illegality’: Researching Forced Labour Experiences Among Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK

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Book cover Ethical Concerns in Research on Human Trafficking

Part of the book series: Studies of Organized Crime ((SOOC,volume 13))

Abstract

This chapter considers the methodological challenges and ethical implications of undertaking a qualitative study of experiences of forced labour among refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. Employment is prohibited while an asylum claim is being processed and for refused asylum seekers, which made identifying participants willing to talk about labour experiences extremely difficult, even if the work experience occurred after an individual gained leave to remain as a refugee with permission to work. This chapter discusses how access was negotiated through participant observation outreach leading to in-depth interviews with 30 individuals. The indicators of forced labour offered by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) were found to be a useful tool for engaging in colloquial discussions of severely exploitative work practices to identify purposively sampled participants without being dependent on definitions of coercion. Challenges to access resulted not only from individuals’ apprehension of speaking to researchers but also from the concerns of gatekeeping agencies nervous to talk about unauthorised employment. In this sense, the ‘doctrine of illegality’ that surrounds ‘illegal employment’ extends far beyond individual workers and workplaces. The chapter considers the question of ‘doing no harm’ in research with individuals who have complex immigration cases and practical needs, and also considers the importance of negotiating informed consent in iterative and informal ways beyond formal signed consent sheets. Discussing how anonymity operates by describing analysis to interviewees in tangible ways was an important corollary to gaining meaningful informed consent. This requires ethical approaches to extend into how data are written up and disseminated.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Precarious Lives project (www.precariouslives.org.uk), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC; RES-062-23-2895) was led by Louise Waite with Stuart Hodkinson, Hannah Lewis (Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, UK) and Peter Dwyer (Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York). A follow-up ESRC Knowledge Exchange Opportunities grant (ES/K005413/1) developed a Platform on Forced Labour and Asylum that produced a guide for practitioners and posters and postcards for workers on employment rights and tackling forced labour (www.forcedlabourasylum.org.uk).

  2. 2.

    For example, a decision was taken early on not to include people who enter the UK under ‘resettlement’ schemes when their refugee status is already predetermined in refugee camps by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Resettlement refugees arrive in the UK with refugee status and enter a resettlement programme, including training on UK rights and entitlements not offered to those who make a ‘spontaneous’ claim for asylum after arrival in the UK. Also not included were people who flee their country as a result of persecution and enter the UK in another type of visa category without claiming asylum who might be thought of, or consider themselves to be, refugees in a broader sense.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Hannah Lewis

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  1. Hannah Lewis
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Correspondence to Hannah Lewis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Willem Pompe Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Dina Siegel

  2. Willem Pompe Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Roos de Wildt

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Lewis, H. (2016). Negotiating Anonymity, Informed Consent and ‘Illegality’: Researching Forced Labour Experiences Among Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK. In: Siegel, D., de Wildt, R. (eds) Ethical Concerns in Research on Human Trafficking. Studies of Organized Crime, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21521-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21521-1_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21520-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-21521-1

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