Starting in October 2026, the project “REFUGEES CARE! Understanding the caring practices and relations of forced migrants in Italy and Germany” explores how forcibly displaced people practise and experience different forms of care. Dr Philipp Schulz, Researcher at the IFSH, leads the project and receives funding from the Gerda Henkel Foundation for two years.
In research, public debates and humanitarian practice forcibly displaced people are often portrayed primarily as vulnerable and in need of assistance, or alternatively as violent and dangerous threats. Far less attention has been paid to how people experiencing displacement also care for one another, provide mutual support and build relations of care themselves. “REFUGEES CARE!” addresses this gap by approaching forcibly displaced people as active agents and practitioners of care and by examining how such practices can contribute to survival, security, peace and the rebuilding of lives.
Exploration of Care Networks in Hamburg, Bremen and on Sicily
The project centres on three questions: How do forcibly displaced people practise and experience care? What is the transformative potential of these practices during and following displacement? And how do experiences and practices of care differ depending on gender and other intersectional social factors? The project explores, for instance, mutual support among people on the move, practices of self- and community care, and transnational networks of care. Research in Germany (Hamburg & Bremen) and Italy (Sicily) will examine these questions across different contexts and stages of displacement, making visible diverse experiences and practices of care both during displacement and upon arrival.
Involving Refugees in Research
The project places a particular emphasis on participatory and co-creative research methods. Rather than conducting research solely about forcibly displaced people, the project actively incorporates their experiences, perspectives and knowledge throughout the research process. In participatory workshops in Hamburg, Bremen and Sicily, participants will collectively reflect on their experiences and understandings of care. In addition, selected participants will keep “care journals”, allowing them to document practices and relations of care in creative ways of their own choosing – through, for instance, written texts, voice messages, photographs, videos or drawings. Ethnographic research through participation in collaborative activities will complement these approaches.
Through this research design, the project aims to not only generate new academic knowledge, but also to question and transform established narratives about displacement and migration. The research seeks to make diverse and nuanced lived realities of forced displacement more visible and to generate insights for policies and practices that better respond to the actual needs and experiences of forcibly displaced people. Insights from the project will be presented in artistic and creative ways, to contribute to knowledge transfer.
