Compassion as a Social Emotion in Ethnographic Research with Unaccompanied Refugee Minors

Anna-Kaisa Kuusisto

doi:10.33134/njmr.1064

Compassion as a Social Emotion in Ethnographic Research with Unaccompanied Refugee Minors

Nordic Journal of Migration Research

Volume 16 (2026): Issue 3

By: Anna-Kaisa Kuusisto

Open Access

|Apr 2026

Ahmed, S. 2014. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Barnett, C. 2005. ‘Ways of relating: hospitality and the acknowledgement of otherness’, Progress in Human Geography, 29(1), pp. 5–21. Available at: 10.1191/0309132505ph535oa.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Boccagni, P. and Baldassar, L. 2015. ‘Emotions on the move: Mapping the emergent field of emotion and migration’, Emotion, Space and Society, 16, pp. 73–80.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cerwonka, A. and Malkki, L.H. 2007. Improvising theory: process and temporality in ethnographic fieldwork. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Chase, E.,Otto, L., Belloni, M., Lems, A. and Wernesjö, U. 2020. ‘Methodological innovations, reflections and dilemmas: the hidden sides of research with migrant young people classified as unaccompanied minors’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(2), pp. 457–473. Available at: 10.1080/1369183X.2019.1584705.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Chessell, Z.J., Brady. F., Akbar, S., Stevens, A. and Young, K. 2019. ‘A protocol for managing dissociative symptoms in refugee populations’, The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 12, e27. Available at: 10.1017/S1754470X19000114.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Clark, J.H. 2017. ‘Feminist geopolitics and the Middle East: refuge, belief, and peace’, Geography Compass, 11(2), e12304. 10.1111/gec3.12304.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Clark‑Kazak, C. 2022. ‘“Why care now” in forced migration research? Imagining a radical feminist ethics of care’, ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 22(4), pp. 1151–1173.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Damasio, A.R. 2010. Self Comes to Mind: constructing the conscious brain. New York: Pantheon Books.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Ducey, A. 2007. ‘More than a job: meaning, affect, and training health care workers’, in P.T. Clough (ed.). The Affective Turn. Theorizing the social. Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 187–208.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Elsrud, T., Lalander, P., Andreasson, J., and Herz, M. 2025. Hope and asylum: everyday life, precarity and social change. London: Routledge.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Gilmartin, M., Jacobsen, M.H. and Kuusisto, A‑K. 2026. Migration: a critical introduction. New Jersey: Wiley‑Blackwell.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Goetz, J., Dacher, K. and Emilianna, S‑T. 2010. ‘Compassion: an evolutionary analysis and empirical review’, Psychological Bulletin, 136(3), pp. 351–374. Available at: 10.1037/a0018807.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Greenberg, M.T. and Turksma, K. 2015. ‘Understanding and watering the seeds of compassion’, Research in Human Development, 12 (3–4), pp. 280–287. Available at: 10.1080/15427609.2015.1068060.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Häkli, J. and Kallio, K.P. 2021. ‘Bodies and persons: the politics of embodied encounters in asylum seeking’, Progress in Human Geography, 45(4), pp. 682–703. Available at: 10.1177/0309132520938449.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Halifax, J. 2012. ‘A heuristic model of enactive compassion’, Current Opinion in Support and Palliative Care, 6(2), pp. 228–235. Available at: 10.1097/SPC.0b013e3283530fbe.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Harrison, P. 2008. ‘Corporeal remains: vulnerability, proximity, and living on after the end of the world’, Environment and Planning A, 40, pp. 423–445. Available at: 10.1068/a391.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hast, S. 2014. ‘Creativity and the study of emotions: a perspective of an international relations scholar’, Academic quarter, 9, pp. 139–150. https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/ak/article/view/3254/2808.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Head, N. 2016. ‘Costly encounters of the empathic kind: a typology’, International Theory, 8(1), pp. 171–199. Available at: 10.1017/S1752971915000238.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Held, V. 2006. The ethics of care: personal, political, and global. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Herz, M. and Lalander, P. 2017. ‘Being alone or becoming lonely? The complexity of portraying ‘unaccompanied children’ as being alone in Sweden’, Journal of Youth Studies, 20(8), pp. 1062–1076. Available at: 10.1080/13676261.2017.1306037.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hobart, H. and Kneese, T. 2020. ‘Radical care’, Social Text, 38(1), pp. 1–16. Available at: 10.1215/01642472-7971067.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hopkins, P. 2008. ‘Ethical issues in research with unaccompanied asylum‑seeking children’, Children‘s Geographies, 6(1), pp. 37–48. Available at: 10.1080/14733280701791884.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hugman, R., Pittaway, E. and Bartolomei, L. 2011. ‘When ‘do no harm’ is not enough: the ethics of research with refugees and other vulnerable groups’, The British Journal of Social Work, 41(7), pp. 1271–87. Available at: 10.1093/bjsw/bcr013.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Jahanmahan, F. and Trondman, M. 2020 ‘I never want to lose that key: on school as an opportunity structure for unaccompanied refugee children in Sweden’, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 10(1), pp. 69–86. Available at: 10.2478/njmr-2019-0027.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kauhanen, I., Kaukko, M. and Lanas, M. 2022. ‘Pockets of love. Unaccompanied children in institutional care in Finland’, Children and Youth Services Review. 141, 106621. Available at: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106621.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kaukko, M., Dunwoodie, K. and Riggs, E. 2017. ‘Rethinking the ethical and methodological dimensions of research with refugee children’, Zeitschrift Fuer Internationale Bildungsforschung Und Entwicklungspaedagogik, 40(1), pp. 16–21. Available at: https://www.waxmann.com/artikelART102138.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kaukko, M., Korkiamäki, R. and Kuusisto, A‑K. 2019. ‘Normatiivisesta etiikasta elettyyn kohtaamiseen: tutkimuksellista hengailua yksin tulleiden maahanmuuttajanuorten kanssa, in N. Rutanen and K. Vehkalahti (eds.). Tutkimuseettisestä sääntelystä elettyyn kohtaamiseen. Lasten ja nuorten tutkimuksen etiikka II, Helsinki: Nuorisotutkimusverkosto, pp. 86–102.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kaukko, M. and Wernesjö, U. 2017. ‘Belonging and participation in liminality: unaccompanied children in Finland and Sweden’, Childhood, 24(1), pp. 7–20. Available at: 10.1177/0907568216649104.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kohli, R. and Kaukko, M. 2018. ‘The Management of time and waiting by unaccompanied asylum‑seeking girls in Finland’, Journal of Refugee Studies, 31(4), pp. 488–506. Available at: 10.1093/jrs/fex040.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kohli, R.K.S. 2006. ‘The sound of silence: listening to what unaccompanied asylum‑seeking children say and do not say’, British Journal of Social Work, 36(5), pp. 707–721. Available at: 10.1093/bjsw/bch305.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Konstan, D. 2014. ‘Pity, compassion, and forgiveness’, in M. Ure and M. Frost (eds.). Politics of Compassion. London: Routledge, pp. 179–188.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Korjonen‑Kuusipuro, K., Kuusisto, A‑K. and Tuominen, J. 2019. ‘Everyday negotiations of belonging‑Making Mexican masks together with unaccompanied minors in Finland’, Journal of Youth Studies, 22(4), pp. 551–567. Available at: 10.1080/13676261.2018.1523539.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Korjonen‑Kuusipuro, K. and Kuusisto, A‑K. 2019. ‘Socio‑material Belonging – Perspectives for the Intercultural Lives of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors in Finland’, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 40(4), pp. 363–382, Available at: 10.1080/07256868.2019.1628725.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Korkiamäki, R. and Gilligan, R. 2020. ‘Responding to misrecognition – A study with unaccompanied asylum‑seeking minors’, Children and Youth Services Review, 119, 105687. Available at: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105687.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Korkiamäki, R. and Kaukko, M. 2023. ‘Faceless, voiceless child – Ethics of visual anonymity in research with children and young people’, Childhood, 30(1), pp. 55–70. Available at: 10.1177/09075682221126586.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kuusisto, A‑K. and Korjonen‑Kuusipuro, K. 2018. ‘Miten kokemuksellista tietoa käyttäen voidaan parantaa yksin Suomeen saapuneiden maahanmuuttajanuorten asumista?’ Tiede & Edistys, 2, pp. 152–158.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kuusisto, A‑K. and Korjonen‑Kuusipuro, K. 2025. ‘Embodied memory encounters’, in G. Guðmundsdóttir and U. Savolainen (eds.). Memory Studies in the Nordic Countries: A Handbook. Leiden: Brill, pp. 381–404.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kuusisto‑Arponen, A‑K. 2016a. ‘Myötätunnon politiikka ja tutkimusetiikka Suomeen yksin tulleiden maahanmuuttajanuorten arjen tutkimisessa’, Sosiologia 53(4), pp. 396–415.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kuusisto‑Arponen, A‑K. 2016b. ‘Perheettömiksi suojellut. Yksin tulleiden alaikäisten oikeus perheeseen’, in O, Fingerroos, A‑M. Tapaninen, and M. Tiilikainen, (eds.). Perheenyhdistäminen. Kuka saa perheen Suomeen, kuka ei ja miksi? Tampere: Vastapaino, pp. 89–109.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kuusisto‑Arponen, A‑K. and Gilmartin, M. 2019. ‘Embodied migration and the geographies of care: the worlds of unaccompanied refugee minors’, in K. Mitchell, R. Jones and J.L. Fluri (eds.). Handbook on Critical Geographies of Migration. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 80–91.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lalander, P. and Herz, M. 2018 ‘I am going to Europe tomorrow: the myth of the anchor child and the decision to flee in the narratives of unaccompanied children’, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 8(2), pp. 91–98. Available at: 10.1515/njmr-2018-0001.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Levinas. E. 1981. Otherwise than being, or, beyond essence. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Maillet, P., Mountz, A. and Williams, K. 2017. ‘Researching migration and enforcement in obscured places: practical, ethical and methodological challenges to fieldwork’, Social & Cultural Geography, 18(7), pp. 927–950. Available at: 10.1080/14649365.2016.1197963.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Marucco Al‑Mimar, C. 2024. Life before the passport. people with a refugee background navigating everyday life, temporalities and subjectivities between refugeehood and citizenship. Turku: Annales Universitatis Turkuensis.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Migrationsverket, statistics. 2016. Numbers of unaccompanied minors. (Accessed 12 February 2016).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Migri, turvapaikka‑ ja pakolaistilastot. [Asylum and refugee statistics] 2015–2018. https://migri.fi/vanhat-tilastot#turvapaikka (Accessed 15 October 2022).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Millei, Z., Kaukko, M. and Korkiamäki, R. 2022. ‘Thinking with publics, politics and ethical boards in participatory ethnographic research’, in B. Hünersdorf, G. Breidenstein, J. Dinkelaker, O. Schnoor, T. and Tyagunova (eds). Going public? Wiesbaden: Springer. Available at: 10.1007/978-3-658-34085-8_16.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Murrani, S., Lloyd, H. and Popovici, I‑C. 2022. ‘Mapping home, memory and spatial recovery in forced displacement’, Social & Cultural Geography, 24(8), pp. 1305–1323. Available at: 10.1080/14649365.2022.2055777.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Nordregio. 2016. Unaccompanied Minors per 1000 inhabitants 2015. https://nordregio.org/maps/unaccompanied-minors-per-1000-inhabitants-2015/ (Accessed 28 September 2023)
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Nussbaum, M. C. 2014. ‘Compassion and terror’, in M. Ure and M. Frost (eds.). Politics of Compassion, London: Routledge, pp. 189–207.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Olson, E. 2016. ‘Geography and ethics II: emotions and morality’, Progress in Human Geography, 40(6), pp. 830–838. Available at: 10.1177/0309132515601766.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Pascucci, E. (2017). The humanitarian infrastructure and the question of over‑research: reflections on fieldwork in the refugee crises in the Middle East and North Africa. Area, 49(2), 249–255. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44329648.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Pink, S. 2009. Doing sensory ethnography. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Povinelli, E.A. 2012. ‘The will to be otherwise/the effort of endurance’, South Atlantic Quarterly 111(3), pp. 453–475. Available at: 10.1215/00382876-1596236.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Puumala, E. 2013. ‘Politiikan tuntu, mieli ja merkitys. Tapahtuva yhteisö ja poliittisuuden kokemus kehollisissa kohtaamisissa’, Tiede & Edistys, 38(2), pp. 125–138.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Saarela, M., Hlushchuk, Y., Williams, A., Schurmann, M., Kalso, E. and Hari, R. 2007. ‘The compassionate brain: humans detect intensity of pain from another’s face’, Cerebral Cortex, 17(1), pp. 230–237. Available at: 10.1093/cercor/bhj141.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Smith, M., Davidson, J., Cameron, L. and Bondi, L. (eds). 2009. Emotion, place and culture. 1st ed. London: Routledge.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Spathopoulou, A., Kallio, K.P., and Häkli, J. 2021. ‘Outsourcing Hotspot governance within the EU: cultural mediators as humanitarian–border workers in Greece’, International Political Sociology, 15(3), pp. 359–377. Available at: 10.1093/ips/olab017.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tørrisplass, A.‑T. 2025. ‘Living in Two Worlds: An institutional ethnographic study of the family reunification process among Unaccompa‑Nied minor and young refugee girls in Norway’, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 15(2), p. 5. Available at: 10.33134/njmr.711.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Turner, J.H. 2009. ‘The sociology of emotions: basic theoretical arguments’, Emotional Review, 1(4), pp. 340–354. Available at: 10.1177/1754073909338305.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Ure, M. and Frost, M. (eds.) 2014. Politics of compassion. London: Routledge.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Valentine, G. 2008. ‘Living with difference: reflections on geographies of encounter’, Progress in Human Geography, 32(3), pp. 323–337. Available at: 10.1177/0309133308089372.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Vervliet, M., Rousseau, C., Broekaert, E. and Derluyn, I. 2015. ‘Multilayered ethics in research involving unaccompanied refugee minors’, Journal of Refugee Studies, 28(4), pp. 468–485. Available at: 10.1093/jrs/feu039.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Waite, L., Valentine, G. and Lewis, H. 2014. ‘Multiply vulnerable populations: mobilising a politics of compassion from the ‘capacity to hurt’, Social & Cultural Geography, 15(3), pp. 313–331, Available at: 10.1080/14649365.2013.872286.
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Wetherell, M. 2012. Affect and emotions: a new social understanding. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Whitebrook, M. 2014. ‘Love and anger as political virtues’, in M. Ure and M. Frost (eds.) Politics of Compassion, London: Routledge, pp. 21–36.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article