In what ways does research benefit from the involvement of refugees? Can research also be empowerment? These key questions are raised by this provocative collection of essays. Here is a book about refugee people, including those seeking asylum, as agents. Their participation in the research processes which inform the policies that shape their lives is seen as vital to the success both of the research and the ensuing social action.

The chapters in this book are the product of an initiative by RAPAR (Refugee and Asylum Seeker Participatory Action Research), which resulted in an ESRC Seminar Series. They are shot through with first-hand experience of the predicament of refugees. They demonstrate, through a series of case studies and theoretical contributions, that engagement with the methodological issue of giving ‘voice’ to refugees within the research process has benefits at various levels. It produces better research and it develops the skills and confidence of the refugees themselves.

These essays also show, sadly, that such empowerment is a threat to established ways of doing things. This is a pioneering collection that explores a new, and to some, disconcerting, direction in research. No one engaged in research with refugees can afford to ignore the questions it raises.