Interviews
We have compiled video interviews with several panelists and the co-founders! Here you can learn about their backgrounds and why they became interested in the Share The Platform initiative!
IASFM Adoption of the Share the Platform Statement
People from forced migrant and refugee backgrounds have a role in shaping the societies in which we live. IASFM calls upon researchers, scholars, and practitioners to “share the platform”--that is, to partner with experts from refugee and other forced migrant backgrounds to work to shape forced displacement research, education, policies and programs.
Context
People from forced migrant and refugee backgrounds have been less visible in the decision-making organs of research organizations, teaching and training institutions that produce knowledge about forced migration; service provision and policy making structures, and cultural institutions and media outlets that represent forced migrants and refugees.
While many people from forced migrant and refugee backgrounds may participate in these institutions, their participation and expertise are not adequately represented in decision-making processes. Similarly, many of the intellectual institutions that produce knowledge about forced migrant and refugee conditions and needs do not always foreground people from refugee backgrounds in academic training, teaching, and research. The mainstream media is woefully barren of stories produced by refugees themselves at nearly all levels of engagement. As noted in the IASFM Code of Ethics, "Forced migration scholarship often disproportionately benefits those who are least affected by displacement."
When institutions and organizations do include the perspectives and voices of people who have experienced displacement and forced migration, these are most often presented as personal narratives or used as data for research, analysis, and policy purposes. This common practice in our field limits the participation of people with lived experience to the descriptive and forecloses opportunities for our audiences to benefit from their analysis, policy insights, and other professional contributions to forced migration studies. While there has been greater emphasis of late on inclusive, participatory practices and ethical knowledge production, many of us publishing research, designing policies, and presenting key debates and issues in the media are not ourselves from these backgrounds. As stated in IASFM’s Code of Ethics, “We acknowledge that too often forced migration researchers are positioned as “experts” on other people’s lives and experiences, and too often speak for, or in the name of, people in forced migration.”
Yet, forcibly displaced people themselves present a range of skills and expertise in key fields of forced migration analysis that has often been overlooked. As researchers, scholars, and practitioners, we have contributed to the ongoing critique of this state of affairs, but we have sometimes been slow to turn our intentions into actions to address this lack. The Share the Platform initiative aims to support meaningful partnerships among experts from forced migrant and non-forced migrant backgrounds to shape forced displacement policies and programs in the societies in which we all live.
The Share the Platform initiative emerged from an IASFM conference panel in July 2018, drawing from ongoing conversations in IASFM and our own experiences as professionals from both forced migrant and non-forced migrant backgrounds, we support actions for enhanced representation and inclusion of professionals with lived experience of displacement in institutions and decision-making bodies.
Actions
It is established best practice to partner with people most affected by an initiative to ensure they are actively involved in decision-making about research and program design, policy-making and action.
IASFM calls upon colleagues in the fields of forced migration research, policy, and service provision to take meaningful steps to “share the platform” by involving professional colleagues with a lived experience of forced migration in decision-making and knowledge production in our research, policy design, practice, and service provision.
IASFM invites experts from forced migrant and refugee backgrounds to contribute their expertise on the unique needs and experiences of refugee and other forced migrant populations in a wide variety of fields.
IASFM commits to supporting and training institutions and people from forced migrant and refugee backgrounds to create meaningful change in program design, policymaking, and action.
IASFM commits to proactively recruit researchers with direct experience of forced migration to serve on the Executive Committee and to actively participate in its membership activities and decision-making.
IASFM advocates for the meaningful participation of people with direct experience of forced migration in all events and activities organized under its auspices, including those in partnership with other organizations. Professionals from forced migration backgrounds should be invited to share their expertise and analysis, and not simply their token presence. This may require advance planning, training, and enhanced access to professional spaces and resources.