Healthy Ageing Futures for Older Women Asylum Seekers: Advancing Oral Histories and Futures Methods

As the numbers of displaced persons across the world grows, research methodologies need to develop to be able to understand these lived experiences in context. This paper draws on key learning points from a project which worked with older women who have applied for asylum in the UK, and specifically in England - a cohort often overlooked by research and practice - to understand their experiences of ageing in this country. Our aim is to provide unique insights into the design and methodological elements of conducting research with older women who seek asylum or are refugees. More specifically, we discuss and explore methodological innovations with oral history approaches to meaningfully and sensitively account for experiences and potential futures of healthy ageing. Our findings focus on three key methodological learning points: from the personal to the universal (study design); participatory oral history (data collection); and oral history for future change (outcomes). To close, we discuss the implications of our research findings and the limitations and strengths of this original project which used a novel application of the methodology, “Oral Histories and Futures”.