Group Dynamics of a Research Team Working in the Field of Migration

Abstract

This article discusses the dynamics of a research team working on a Swiss National Foundation project, `Migrants and a health network: towards intercultural adaptation'. The focus of the study is to assess a healthcare network and its use by a migrant population and the influence on it by the introduction of cultural mediators. The methods are based on qualitative and action research. The research team is interdisciplinary (somaticians, psychiatrists, sociologists, anthropologists, linguists, nurses) and the healthcare network studied includes public and private, specialized and general institutions. It was observed that problems (power struggle, exclusion, etc.) partly related to the problems of migration arose in the research team, which gradually became `paralysed' in its work. The team transformed itself into an `anti-group' marked by conflicts and ruptures. The decision to analyse its own behaviour and the underlying conflicts has allowed the research team to recover its sound working basis.