It is now widely acknowledged that children and young people should be given a voice and an active role in social research. The new shift in the social studies of childhood initiated by writers such as James and Prout (1997) and James et al. (1998) views children as co-participants in the research process and stresses their competency and agency rather than seeing them as subjects of the research process. Morrow and Richards suggest then that respect for children’s competencies ‘needs to become a methodological technique in itself’ (1996:110). With the recent trends in European migration, new ethnic groups are developing in most European countries and there is an immediate need for research with the new minority groups. Traditionally, ethic minority groups were considered ‘hard to reach’ and including them in research raises specific ethical, methodological and practical issues.

Cameron et al. (1992) describe research as ‘ethical research’ (research on), ‘advocacy research’ (research on and for) and ‘empowering research’ (research on, for and with). This paper discusses the ethical issues encountered in doing research with new migrant children in Scotland, but also reflects on what it takes to make research empowering for marginalised groups. Transcripts and field notes from two studies were used as evidence for developing the ethical considerations discussed in this paper. One study looked at Polish children’s access to services (Sime and McArthur, 2008) and the other explores Eastern European migrant children’s experiences of migration in Scotland (Sime, 2007). Both studies involved children (between the ages of 8 and 14) and used child-centred research methods. In the first study, sixteen children were interviewed in their homes, based on visual materials produced by the children, while in the second study, small focus groups were conducted on children’s experiences of migration in Scotland. The paper discusses the ethical implications of conducting research with migrant youth, especially at the initial stages of their settlement in a new country, in particular issues relating to access, informed consent and representation and interpretation of data collected. Specific ethical issues related to the sensitive nature of introducing the concept of research to children are also addressed. Questions posed in the paper include: How can one involve migrant children in research in an empowering manner? What are the best ways of dealing with consent in migrant families, who may be new to the concept of research or may not speak the majority language? What is the impact of the researcher’s ‘self’ in the research process in terms of personal, social and institutional influences on research and analysis? How can one deal with issues of power when research is mediated by adults or organisations? What are the ethical aspects of analysing data elicited through interpreters?

The paper identifies some strategies for addressing the difficulties encountered in researching children and young people from ethic minority groups and it considers the benefits of involving minority groups in the research enquiry process. Researchers need to be prepared to be flexible in terms of collecting data and ready to make ethical decisions on site. They need to identify the best ways of empowering ethnic minority groups as part of a broad emancipatory paradigm. The researcher’s self is likely to configure the nature of the research relationships and of the data collected in every encounter. The practical constraints that may affect the data collection, especially in relation to the use of interpreters, need also careful consideration. Finally, researchers need to make sure that reports reflect children’s own views in a positive and unstigmatising manner, with respect for children’s rationality and their dignity. Special attention needs to be given to the protection of the participants at the dissemination stage, given the current hostile environment towards new migrants in many European countries.