Alternative Databases: The Research Resource Division For
Refugees

byLes Teichroew '

Research Associate

Research Resource Division for Refugees

Carleton University Alternative Databases:

The Research Resource Divisionfor Refugees

Part of the Centre for Immigration and Ethnocultural

Studies, the Research Resource Division for Refugees

(RRDR) is located at Carleton University in Ottawa,

Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1985 to serve as

an international archive and data collection agency for

scholarly, governmental and field information on refugee

resetdement and adaptation. In addition RRDR pub-
lishes a quarterly newsletter INSCAN (International

Settlement Canada), each issue being devoted to a

specific topic on refugee resettlement. RRDR also is

actively involved in research on resettlement. To date

three studies have been completed: The Southeast Asian

Refugee Study - A Report on the Three Year Study of the

Social and Economic Adaptation of Southeast Asian
Refugees to Life in Canada (1981-1983); The Settlement

of Ethiopian Refugees in Toronto (1989); and, the

Settlement of Salvadoran Refugees in Ottawa and
Toronto (1989). The Resource Division also publishes a

series of Working Papers in Immigration and Ethno-

Cultural Studies addressing critical issues in the area.

Examples include: Immigration and Visible Minorities in

the Year 2001 - A Projection - by Dr. John Sammuel and
The Mosaic a Generation Later - Issues and Trends - by
Dr. Frank Vallee.

The intent and form of RRDR's activities is largely a

product of one fundamental characteristic of the field of

refugee studies: namely, its state of considerable and
continual development and flux. The composition and
characteristics of groups of refugees and refugee claim-

ants can change quickly, placing new and unforseen

demands upon involved governmental, inter-governmen-

tal and non-governmental organizations, immigrant and
refugee service centres, and sponsors. What these

organizations and individuals require in order to provide

services in an appropriate and culturally-sensitive manner
is information; but this information needs to be produced
quickly, and it should also be readily accessible. As it

takes up to two years for information to begin circulating

through traditional academic venues, so-called "gray
zone" publications offer the quickest source of up-to-date

information in the field. As a result, the holdings of
RRDR are predominantly - but not solely - comprised of
"gray zone" publications. Our holdings also include a
limited number of central, but specialized academic
sources in the field. In addition, each of our documents

has been entered into one of three on-line textual

bibliographic databases in order to further enhance speed

and ease of access to the required information.

"Gray zone" publications are produced by a wide range

of organizations, including various government depart-

ments, inter-govemmental organizations, non-govern-

mental organizations, ethnocultural associations, and

other interested individuals, including some academics.

Their form is also diverse, including newsletters and

periodicals, research monographs, field reports, occa-

sional papers, conference proceedings, pamphlets,

posters, and non-print forms, such as videos, films and

photographic slides.

There is a considerable breadth and diversity in the range

of topics which one may find published in the field of

refugee studies. However, RRDR has from the outset

focused upon issues of resettlement as they relate to

third-world refugees. Areas of particular interest include

the situation and experiences of refugee women, the

health and mental health of resettled refugees, and the

cultural background of refugee groups. However,
numerous faculty members at Carleton University can be

consulted depending upon the area of research interest.

We have made a conscious decision not to systematically

collect documents relating to issues of human rights and

refugee law, and we also limit the information obtained

regarding the political conditions in refugee-producing

countries which underlie refugee flight. The primary

reason for not focusing upon these two areas is eco-

nomic: collecting documents in these areas would require

financial and personnel resources which we do not

possess. Fortunately, two years ago the federal govern-

ment of Canada established an organization whose
mandate was to act as a documentation centre for

information on issues of human rights and political

conditions in countries of origin. The Immigration and

Refugee Board (IRB), through its documentation centre

(IRBDC) in Ottawa, Canada and five regional offices,
2

has rapidly obtained a rather diverse and comprehensive

collection of documents on these issues - and others -

which are readily accessible to government officials,

academics and other interested parties. To our knowl-

edge they are the only government internationally to have

invested the resources to establish such a collection of

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documents. The resources in the IRBDC are comple-

mentary to our own: indeed, we often exchange informa-

tion.

While RRDR purchases a portion of its holdings, many
are obtained at no cost from governmental, intergovern-

mental and non-governmental organizations, ethnic

community groups and researchers. RRDR also obtains

a significant number of documents through exchange for

our newsletter. We have explicitly sought to avoid

obtaining documents which are already held at the

Carleton University library on-campus; fortunately,

owing to our focus on gray-market documents there is

little over-lap between the library holdings and our own.

However, the library holdings provide easy and rapid on-

line access to academic sources in the field - as well as

some government documents - thereby extending the

range of materials available to researchers in our office.

In addition, a number of national libraries exist in the

region, enabling RRDR researchers to search for (on-

line) and obtain documents from a very wide range of

sources. And, while we currently do not have any

statistical data sets in our holdings, we would welcome
the contribution of such data by any researchers, agencies

or governments to our organization.

Although the holdings in RRDR are unique - that is, text-

based, predominantly "gray-market" publications on the

resettlement of third-world refugees - the format of our

on-line records share features similar to those found in

many other refugee documentation centres worldwide.

This is because we exchange information with participat-

ing members of the International Refugee Documentation

Network (IRDN) as well as other organizations and

agencies. The format for our on-line data follows closely

the convention established by HURIDOCS. Although

initially intended for documents on the issue of human
rights, HURIDOCS has been adapted for use in the field

of refugee studies, and also to meet our particular local

needs. This format is somewhat different than that used

in most libraries, owing partly to the different nature of

our respective documents. A number of the participating

members of the IRDN have adopted the HURIDOCS
format, also with minor modifications.

In numerical terms, our holdings currently comprise

more than 6,000 items (i.e. publications) which have

been entered into a number of on-line searchable (text-

based) bibliographic databases. One of the databases

focuses on the condition and experiences of women
refugees in countries of origin, countries of first asylum

and countries of resettlement. This bibliography is in the

final stages of editing and will be published shortly. A
second database contains items relating to the physical

and mental health of refugees. A third database covers

more general issues of refugee resettlement and integra-

tion, including economic, cultural, linguistic, and civic

and social welfare facets, among others. Ideally, each of

the sources in the databases will be fully abstracted and

keyworded using the International Thesaurus of Refugee

Terminology (developed by the International Refugee

Documentation Network, 1989). This should enhance

the utility of the databases as the entry of standardized

keywords will increase the speed and precision of

literature searches. However, owing to limited financial

and personnel networks only the bibliography on refugee

women has been fully abstracted and keyworded.

Our holdings include items published by international

and national non-govemmental organizations, govern-

mental and inter-governmental bodies, local ethnocultu-

ral communities, research institutes, and interested

individuals.

Examples of our international periodicals from non-

governmental organizations include ICVA News .

published by the International Council of Voluntary

Agencies, the International Catholic Migration Commis-

sion Newsletter , by the International Catholic Migration

Commission, and Refugee Participation Network , by the

Refugee Studies Programme, Oxford University. Refu-

gees , from the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees, and Monthly Dispatch , published by the

Intergovernmental Committee for Migration are two

instances of our inter-govemmental periodicals holdings.

National periodicals include the Canadian Ethnocultural

Council , by the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, Update ,

by the U.S. Catholic Conference, Migration and Refugee

Services, and Nv Fremtid . by the Norwegian Refugee

Council. Immigrant Women of PEL by the Immigrant

Women's Group in Prince Edward Island, Canada, is one

example of more local periodicals from non-governmen-

tal organizations. Our holdings also include a number of

newsletters and periodicals from ethnic associations.

Our holdings of reports, field studies, occasional papers

and policy analyses are as diverse. Instances of docu-

ments from national governments include The Hmong
Resettlement Study , published by the U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services, Please Listen to What I'm

Not Saving: A Report on the Survey of Settlement

Experiences of Indochinese Refugees. 1978-1980 . by the

Australian Government, and A Follow-up of the Condi-

tions of Unaccompanied Minors and Handicapped

Persons among the Refugees from Vietnam Resettled in

Sweden , by the Swedish National Board of Health and

Welfare. Our holdings also include provincial and state

documents such as The Training Needs of Settlement

Service Workers , by the Ministry of Citizenship and

Culture, Government of Ontario, and documents from

local governments, like the publication Information for

Young Refugee Parents from the Fresno County Depart-

ment of Social Services. Our holdings also include a

number of publications from intergovernmental organiza-

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tions such as Working with Refugees in Somalia To-

wards a Development Perspective: A Technical Co-

operation Report, by the International Labour Office, and

numerous reports from various United Nations bodies,

including Violence Against the Vietnamese Boat Refu-

gees: An Assessment of Needs and Services from the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Examples of documents from national non-governmental

organizations include Uprooted Angolans , by the U.S.

Committee for Refugees and Voluntary Repatriation

Programmes for African Refugees: A Critical Examina-

tion , published by the British Refugee Council. Making
it on Their Own: From Refugee Sponsorship to Self-

Sufficiencv . by the Church World Service, and Helping

Refugee Women Help Themselves: YWCA's Response
are instances of publications from international non-

governmental organizations.

zations, government departments, and assorted other non-

governmental organizations.

1 Presented at the IASSIST 90 Conference held in

Poughkeepsie, N.Y. May 30 - June 2, 1990.

2 These regional offices are in Vancouver, Calgary, Win-
nipeg, Toronto and Montreal.

3 Our fax number is (613)788-3676. Inquiries can also

be sent by electronic mail to "neuwirth@carleton.ca" and

"rrdr@carleton.ca"

.

While one could provide many more instances of our

publications holdings, the preceding recitation should

have provided some indication of the range of documents

inRRDR.

One of our mandates is to make this information widely

available to persons and organizations working in the

area of refugee resettlement; we often receive requests

from organizations world-wide for information in the

field. The databases make it relatively easy to process

these information requests and, following an on-line

search, to forward our findings. In cases where the

individual or organization would like to acquire specific

documents in our holdings we may, with the permission

of the authors, reproduce and forward copies of the

publications. In events where this is not possible or

feasible, we refer requests to the original publisher.

Unfortunately, owing to limited computer and software

facilities in RRDR, the databases are not currendy

accessible direcdy from terminals outside of the office

and off-campus. On-line access to a read-only copy of

the databases is planned for the near future, pending the

availability of resources.

Requests for information are received and dealt with at

RRDR through a number of routes. Many information

requests are forwarded to us by phone, fax and elec-

tronic-mail. 3 The simplest of these requests can often be
answered over the phone. More complex information

requests, or those requiring either a bibliographic listing

of publications or the publications themselves, involve

sending the information to the requesters by fax, elec-

tronic-mail, or through the postal service. A number of

requesters also conduct research on RRDR premises.

Users ofRRDR facilities include students, academic and
other researchers, refugee and immigrant service organi-

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