Creating new understandings of migration-related vulnerabilities through youth-led peer research using intergenerational focus groups

Participatory research methods are particularly appropriate when working with marginalised groups in vulnerable conditions, including migrant youth who are widely seen as confronting a range of vulnerabilities. This article draws on research undertaken with migrant youth as peer-researchers, between 2020 and 2023 in England and Sweden, to explore how young people can learn from earlier generations in navigating vulnerabilities and to build knowledge across migration and ‘integration’ experiences over time. The reflections presented in this article are based on eight intergenerational focus groups, four in each country, involving five peer researchers, three in England and two in Sweden. By reflecting on our mutual experiences of conducting intergenerational focus groups facilitated by young peer researchers we contribute to debates around peer research and community-based participatory research methods more broadly. We suggest that our approach has potential for creating space for reflection over power and agency within the research process. By connecting the past, present and future in an intergenerational setting, possibilities to build knowledge in support of inclusive social change are enabled. The article contributes with reflections within a specific research context of vulnerabilities related to experiences of migration, but we believe that these reflections have potential to support the design of future research that aims to employ intergenerational focus groups for their specific research topic.