Music and singing as arts-based methods to facilitate participatory spaces for co-production in migration health research: A mixed methods study

Opportunities for refugees and migrants to be involved in health research in re-settlement countries is not optimal. This creates a structural bias in evidence to transform health systems into diversity sensitive inclusive systems. Arts-based methods using music and singing are underexplored in migration health research even though they may have specific characteristics to facilitate participatory spaces for co-production. We report a mixed-methods analysis of an innovative participatory space using the ‘Irish World Music Café’ method. Twenty-five participants from community, health, and academic sectors took part in five 2 hour music cafés with the goal of co-producing a vision and action plan to improve refugee and migrant involvement in health research in Ireland. We evaluated the space using quantitative and qualitative methods. We explored the resonance of the combined findings against Palmer et al.’s theoretical model of change in co-production. Participants reported high levels of enjoyment and high motivation for new partnerships, with evidence of migrants gaining centrality in networks for such partnerships. There were multiple examples of how characteristics of music and singing resonate with mechanisms of co-production. These findings point to potential for a new area of interdisciplinary work in the field of migration health that warrants further investigation.