Keele Data Repository

The project's key ethical principle was to do no harm. Due to their precarious legal statuses, potential experiences of trauma and marginalised social statuses, displaced persons ought to be considered vulnerable according to the ethical guidelines of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and the Commonwealth (ASA 2015). Our project was informed by these ethical guidelines to negotiate informed consent, ensure anonymity and confidentiality, and avoid harm while working in a cross-cultural context. All participants were provided with full information about the research (translated). Given their precarious status written consent could ‘expose participants to increased risk, arouse mistrust and suspicion of researchers, and undermine the possibility for negotiating genuine ethical engagement’ (Mackenzie et al. 2007: 306); therefore consent was also established orally. Research sought not risk re-traumatising participants. Interview topics were discussed through open-ended questions so participants could direct and decide on the level of detail given. Potentially traumatic subjects raised during fieldwork were approached with caution, taking the participant’s lead in how to discuss. To minimise discomfort interviews were not systematically be audio-recorded.