Vulnerability in the Canadian refugee determination arena : an interpretive description study

This exploratory study utilized Interpretive Description, an applied qualitative methodology, to investigate the manner in which the concept of vulnerability is currently understood and intervened upon within the refugee determination arena in Canada. Consistent with Interpretive Description, this study generated qualitative data from multiple sources, which were theoretically and purposively selected. Four distinct source groups provided data at different levels of analysis: government documents and qualitative interviews with officials offered insight into the systemic level, key professional informants provided access to the organizational level, recent refugee claimants provided information on the individual level, and the collected documentation of a small number of refugee claims provided examples of particular instances, while providing insight into the refugee determination arena as a whole. In the context of Canadian refugee determination, ‘vulnerability’ refers to factors that impede access to a fair hearing and the risk of retraumatization. This study provides a rich and timely description of aspects of identity and experience that give rise to vulnerability for refugee claimants and the institutional and community-based practices that can exacerbate or mitigate risks for harm. Three key findings can be distilled from this study: vulnerability is conceptualized according to essentialized characteristics of refugee claimants, there is variation between professional conceptualizations of vulnerability, and there are barriers to implementation across the refugee determination arena. I argue that a mis-attribution of harm to the individual/intrapsychic rather than to the systemic domain, a lack of integration of the psychological knowledge base that underpins the concept of vulnerability, and systemic barriers to implementation result in less than optimal protection for refugee claimants.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat