The status quo of psychology research on refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced people: a global bibliometric analysis
Authors: Al-Dekah Arwa M. , Alrawashdeh Ahmad , Bellizzi Saverio , Al-Mistarehi Abdel-Hameed , Kheirallah Khalid A. 
Published: November 2024

Purpose

Bibliometric analyses of psychological research on refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced people is scarce. This study aims to evaluate the productivity and impact of publications related to the psychology of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the Scopus database, the authors searched for psychology-related publications under the subject area “Psychology” and included keywords for refugees, asylum-seeker and displaced people. Retrieved publications were analyzed and visualized using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer. Productivity and impact of related research publications were presented.

Findings

A total of 2,317 publications were identified, with an h-index of 86. An increase post-2014 was noted. The USA was the most productive country and the University of New South Wales leading institutional contributions. “Review of Child and Adolescent Refugee Mental Health” was top cited. Some keywords, like posttraumatic stress disorder, were frequently used. Research on migration and Syrians from refugee backgrounds is notably advancing.

Research limitations/implications

This study analyzed many publications related to psychology concerning refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people over the past 23 years. Advanced analysis was facilitated using software tools, including Microsoft Excel and Biblioshiny for the Bibliometrix R package and VOSviewer software. These advanced bibliometric and scientometric tools enable us to depict in depth the evolving trends and international collaborations between authors and countries, and analysis tending topic. This study has some limitations. First, the authors restricted our analysis to the Scopus database; thus, some publications available in other databases like Web of Science or Google Scholar may have been overlooked. Second, the keywords used in this study were “refugee,” “asylum-seeker” and “displaced people”. As a result, some relevant publications might have been missed, and future research could use a more comprehensive set of keywords related to refugees, asylum and displacement. For future research, keywords such as humanitarian immigrants, queue jumpers, boaties and stateless, among other terms, should be considered across the field to label people from displaced backgrounds. Our study focused on titles to directly capture the most explicitly relevant articles. In future studies, it is important to include the abstracts and keywords to identify additional pertinent studies. In our study, the authors did not use the asterisk. Thus, the asterisk may allow for the inclusion of all possible endings of a root word.

Originality/value

The study indicates a significant increase in research publications over time. The findings are significant for establishing a research agenda and network in this area, assisting international health agencies and governments in understanding the psychological challenges among this vulnerable group.