ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses an exceptional research project using documentary film as a form of participatory research with refugee youth. The authors ask and explicate why to use a documentary film as part of social science research. Substantially, the objective of the project was to examine young asylum seekers’ thoughts and experiences of participating in the Finnish labour market and working life. The research intentionally departed from prior research which typically focuses on refugee youth’s vulnerable position in society, highlighting instead their “success stories” and bringing up the everyday resources that refugee youth rely on when participating in working life. In the chapter, the authors describe the starting points of the film project, their personal motivations to embark on it and the actual process of making the documentary. They walk through the film-making process step-by-step, valorising along the way the different (and at times difficult) ethical and technical choices the authors faced in the process. They also consider what such choices mean for the kind of research data and knowledge that are finally produced and presented to the audiences; for instance, how can the reliability and validity of this kind of research be judged?
