You can’t clap with one hand: Learnings to promote culturally grounded participatory action research with migrant and former refugee communities

This paper considers how researchers can undertake culturally grounded participatory action research (PAR) with migrant and former refugee communities whose relational network, customs and social hierarchy are perceived to be under threat. It draws on learnings from a PAR-inspired ethnographic study with young Assyrian women, who experienced tension with the bottom-up, participant-centred and social change-oriented ideals of PAR. Participants preferred to discuss their experiences with the researcher and have their views publicized anonymously through a research report than to work with her on an action project to address the issues that they raised. The young women wanted adults in their community to understand their desire to adapt some Assyrian cultural norms so that they could ‘fit in’ better in New Zealand society, but feared they would be criticised if they conveyed this in a public way. This experience showed that it is important to ground tools and processes in participants’ own goals and sociocultural contexts, which may not always be immediately apparent. Projects that acknowledge and work with participants’ relational networks are more likely to be effective in communities whose social fabric and customs are perceived to be under threat than those that attempt to ‘mobilise’ a sub-group within it to achieve social change.