PREP’s first seminar of the 2023-24 academic year on Turning Decolonization Rhetoric into Action focused on Restrictions of Rohingya Freedom of Movement in Bangladesh. The event featured members of the team that worked with Youth Congress Rohingya (YCR) on a participatory action research study that led to publication of their recent report “Restrictions of Rohingya Freedom of Movement in Bangladesh.” Researchers Andrew Riley, Haley Ritsema (NYU alumna), and Nikki Stoumen (NYU alumna and PREP non-resident researcher) led a discussion about the restrictions Rohingya refugees face, their research methodology with YCR, and advocacy efforts.
Due to security reasons, the event was led by YCR Research Advisors Andrew, Haley and Nikki as the Rohingya researchers and participants could not disclose their identities. However, the founder/ researcher coordinator of Youth Congress Rohingya sent a message using a pseudonym. As a young Rohingya living in the walls of the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar District in Bangladesh, Ma. Myint explained that they are one of the 750 000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar in 2017 to escape a genocidal campaign by the Myanmar military. After being unable to finish their studies in Myanmar and becoming a refugee in Bangladesh, Ma. Myint was inspired to find a way to use their knowledge and help their community as Rohingya voices were systematically excluded from decision-making by the international community and the Bangladeshi government that directly impact Rohingya lives.
Although Rohingyas had the opportunity to participate in research projects and activities led by NGOs, Ma. Myint reported that they were never in decision-making or leadership positions. As a response, the creation of YCR was an effort to combat the misperception that Rohingyas are uneducated and have low levels of capacity which invalidates their skills, knowledge and creativity. Ma. Myint said that this only perpetuated the idea that Rohingyas are victims of genocide rather than survivors who intimately know the needs of their communities, and saw in YCR an opportunity to avoid the publication and political constraints that most NGOs had.
Andrew Riley provided the audience with a project overview of “Restrictions on Rohingya Freedom of Movement in Bangladesh” which is based on Participatory Action Research, an approach which recognizes that the affected communities are the experts on their own communities and situation. The project was conducted in almost all Rohyingya refugee camps (30), and involved 295 Rohingya respondents, 241 quantitative surveys, and 54 qualitative interviews. The research findings revealed the prison-like conditions with prohibitions against leaving the camps, the increasing difficulty of moving withing the camps, the imposed curfews, the restrictions on assembly and the prohibitions on work that Rohingyas face everyday. It was also found by the researchers that these restritions are enforced through extortion, high levels of violence, detention and arrest, forced labor, fencing and checkpoints.
When taking a decolonization perspective, the researchers identified that many problems persist although international efforts are made to help Rohyingas. Indeed, aid priorities are determined by donor governments, funding does not completely flow to affected communities and inequality and power imbalances are very present at the community level. With that in mind, the discussion highlighted the unique approach employed by the Rohingya-led research team which challenged the typical paradigms employed by Global North research teams that often replicate and reinforce colonial structures. In forming their approach to this project, Rohyinga researchers ensured that non-local advisors were bridges between the local communities and people in power position rather than blindely seing them as experts or project directors. Similarly, Andrew insisted on the importance of fostering relationships, addressing the power imbalances in research teams and considering local researchers as the experts.
Finally, the researchers turned to the broader implications of the project as applied decolonization. Haley explained that central to the success of the project was to engage in dialogue that encourages our moral and critical reasoning to flip the paradigm of accountability while maintaining equality. After going in-depth into the different processes of assembling the reseach teams, the data collection methods and the carrying of the work, the researchers explained that this methodology has many benefits and is a proof of concept that can be replicated. Indeed, Nikki argued that the research resulted in high quality data and contained impactful messaging as it centered around Rohingyas voices. The researchers ended by explaining some of the challenges they faced for the projects, such as overcoming entrenched power structures, different cultrual understandings of time, pace, and purpose and moving the spotlight to the local community amongst others. Yet, they insisted that accepting those challenges is a necessary step and invited the audiences to think about both small and big steps that can be taken to overcome them.
The discussion was then followed by a Q&A. The full recording is available here.
The full report is available here.