A meeting with Vietnamese migrant women

[The following text is an example or "case", which can serve as a starting point for reflection and discussion. This example is based on real events.] 

In a project about immigrant women's experiences with the Norwegian maternity care system, a group of pregnant Vietnamese women who have given birth before, either in Norway, in a transit camp, or in their home country, are contacted.

The purpose of the project is to gain knowledge about how they have experienced previous births and what expectations they have regarding the upcoming birth. The women are contacted through an interpreter to get their consent to be interviewed. They live quite far from the city and the researchers have no contact with them except through the interpreter before they meet them in the women's homes. The researchers have provided the interpreter the information they believe is appropriate to share about the project, but since they do not speak the women's language, they do not know how the information has been conveyed and whether it has been understood. As is common in many Asian cultures, the women exhibit a high standard of hospitality and cordiality. When the researchers knock on their door, they are welcomed in, and when they try to find out whether the women have understood the information given about the project, they are met with many smiles and affirmative nods. When the researchers ask if they can use a tape recorder, the women proudly show off their own tape recorders. Although these women have lived in Norway for several years, the researchers gradually learn that they are the first Norwegians to visit, aside from other researchers and the health nurse. The interpreter also reveals late in the project that Asian women do not have a tradition of discussing their childbirths, as Norwegian women do. For them, giving birth is considered a private matter and is not typically discussed.

The researchers' dilemma: Could it be questioned whether the researchers failed to take responsibility for subjectively perceived harm? In this case, was it legitimate to ask questions about the birth experience? Could one speak of voluntary informed consent? (They were smiling, nodding, approving!) Could it be imagined that the women answered the researchers' questions because they believed the researchers were from the authorities? Or because they thought that the researchers were in the country first? Or simply because they were there? To what extent did the researchers' promise of anonymity hold any value for these women? Did they understand why the researchers approached them? And what responsibility do the researchers have if these women felt monitored or exposed?

Note: This is a translation of the Norwegian original text by Johanne Svanes Oskarsen.