Ethical Dilemmas of Conducting Research Among Precarious Status Migrants: Research Ethics Boards and Beyond

In Canada, research is governed by national ethical guidelines and standards enforced by institutional research ethics boards (REBs) to protect vulnerable populations, such as temporary migrant farmworkers. However, the rigid and inflexible application of these procedures often creates significant barriers for social science researchers striving to promote social justice for this population and may lead to antagonism between researchers and REB chairs. Institutional ethics frameworks frequently fail to account for the embeddedness of research within rural agricultural communities and the critical role these communities play in shaping ethical decision-making. When REBs overlook these relational and contextual dynamics, they impose requirements that can obstruct meaningful, on-the-ground ethical engagement. To illustrate these tensions, we focus on three challenges, namely, participant recruitment strategies, consent procedures, and protection from trauma. To avoid misunderstandings and antagonism, we call for a paradigm shift toward understanding research ethics as relations, that is, inherently embedded within complex networks of relationships, emphasizing iterative models of consent developed through ongoing negotiations between researchers, participants, and other community members. Bridging the gap between ethical research in theory and practice requires a relational paradigm that recognizes the need to mitigate hostilities and antagonism and emphasizes the importance of collaboration and dialogue – not only among academics, migrants, and community stakeholders but also between researchers and REB members.