Tess Hartland: NCRM Impact Prize entry

The title of this application was Co-produced, Creative Methods to Portray Experiences of Growing Older and Seeking Sanctuary in Manchester. It was submitted by Tess Hartland, a PhD researcher at The University of Manchester.

Summary of NCRM participation

Training: Biographic Narrative Interpretative Method: A Taster Workshop

Podcasts: Is it possible to use creative methods to research migration and citizenship? and Transforming lives with storytelling

Impact achieved

Summary

Using techniques learnt through the NCRM’s 'Biographic narrative interpretative method' workshop I conducted research that explored the lived experiences of older refugees and asylum seekers in Greater Manchester. The research method was used to conduct life story interviews with 20 people over the age of 50 who have experience forced displacement. As demonstration of the impact from using this method, I was able to follow up the interviews by co-producing a comic book to communicate the research findings beyond academia. The comic ‘Echoes of Displacement’ was launched in Refugee Week at an event at the People’s History Museum attended by over 65 people and then put on exhibition at Manchester Central Library.

Context

Older adults who have a refugee or asylum-seeking background have largely been excluded from ageing research despite the continuous rise of forced displacement worldwide. They have complex and diverse ageing experiences in the context of structural and socioeconomic challenges, which may compromise their health as they grow older in host cities. Responding to the limited research, the new methods I trained in through NCRM enabled me to explore the lived experiences of older refugees and asylum seekers. Marginalised groups such as refugees and asylum seekers are seldom heard in policy and practice, therefore a central feature of this project was to amplify the voices of older refugees and asylum seekers and ensure they have agency within the research.

Conducting the research

Following extensive literature searches and trainings including NCRM’s 'Biographic narrative interpretative method' workshop, life story interviews were the chosen methodology. Twenty people aged fifty or above who identified as refugees or asylum seekers took part in life story interviews between September 2022 and February 2023. Through snowball and purposive sampling, people from eight different countries who have lived in Manchester between three and twenty-one years shared their lived experiences of ageing, health and living in the city. Among others, themes discussed were housing, healthcare, religion, isolation, discrimination, language, and immigration policy.

Given the rich and emotive data that arose from the interviews, it was deemed essential to communicate the findings beyond the academic sphere, particularly when reflecting on the everyday silencing and loss of agency within the refugee and asylum-seeking population. Initially, I explored a range of creative methods; NCRM’s podcasts on creative methods and storytelling usefully explored the benefits and practicalities of adopting less traditional forms of data collection. Following discussions with fellow academics, participants and the local charities who continue to offer invaluable support, we landed on a comic book.

Through this medium, it is possible to maintain the narrative nature of the interviews, convey emotion, communicate research in an engaging way, and provide a tangible output for our participants to feel proud of. I selected an artist (Lindsay Pollock) who had previous experience in communicating humanitarian stories and research in this format. He was keen to be involved in the whole project, from the creation of the storyline to the launch event. This was critical in co-producing a story that was truly indicative of the lived experiences of our participants. Lindsay and I ran two co-production workshops to ensure those with a lived experience led the development of the storyline and imagery. The workshops were supported by two local refugee charities: RAPAR and Manchester City of Sanctuary.

Impact and engagement

Alongside the creation of the comic itself, we felt it important to have a launch event to thank everyone involved and to have a moment for celebration. It would also provide an opportunity to bring together unlikely groups including academics, civil society organisations, members of the refugee and asylum-seeking community and the general public. The People’s History Museum, itself inspiring equality, justice and co-operation, was a perfect location for this. We had approximately 50 attendees in total. Among them were many from the refugee community, the charities we collaborated with (RAPAR, Manchester City of Sanctuary and Rethink Rebuild Society) and colleagues from the University of Manchester. The joy and warmth felt in the room culminated in a moving performance from The Voices of Hope Choir – comprised of people who have sought sanctuary in Manchester. The event coincided with Refugee Week 2023, so the subject area was of heightened interest. Furthermore, Manchester Central Library kindly displayed large prints of the comic from June to August 2023. This widened the reach of our research findings to the broader public.

Hardcopies of the comic have since been distributed to refugee charities in Manchester, stakeholders involved in our wider research group such as Manchester City Council and Age-Friendly Manchester and fellow academics – including some who would like to use the comic as a teaching resource. Beyond Manchester, the comic has been presented at two conferences: British Society of Gerontology 2023 and International Migration Research Network 2023. Through external research partners, conferences and social media dissemination, Echoes of Displacement has travelled further afield. For example, universities and refugee charities in Belgium and academics in South Africa have reached out after reading it. The comic remains online for ongoing viewing. A Global Development Institute blog post reflecting on the process and regular updates about the comic and associated events have since been shared on social media. Each post has received up to 4,500 views on Twitter and 1,500 impressions on LinkedIn so far.

I am overwhelmed by the positive response to the comic, from those already fully versed in experiences of forced displacement, and those who have never contemplated the subject before. It is interesting to see the similarities and differences in the experiences of older people seeking sanctuary in different contexts. By offering a short survey at the end of the publication, we will be able to collate the feedback received. Remarks such as "it communicates emotion in a way a research paper can't", "this makes people see others" and "[the comic] represents marginalised people" demonstrate how powerful the methods discussed through NRCM’s network can be.

Legacy

Echoes of Displacement has already reached far more people than we could have predicted, however given the ongoing relevance of the research topic, I believe this engagement will only grow further. In future, I hope to translate Echoes of Displacement into different languages to improve its accessibility and inclusivity. I will continue discuss the strengths and limitations of creative methods with other researchers and disseminate the research findings and Echoes of Displacement where appropriate. I hope that we can continue to raise awareness of the refugee experience for older people and contradict the hostility that dominates media and politics. NCRM’s activities have provided me with insight into new methodologies, which I will carry with me in my future career.