The FHR employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods for this study. The quantitative component consisted of a survey of 356 adult refugees and asylum-seekers in Gauteng and the Western Cape. The qualitative component consisted of focus group discussions with refugees and asylum-seekers and in-depth interviews with staff members of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in South Africa. All data for the survey questionnaire was collected through the KOBO mobile application, and analysed in R, a powerful statistical analysis package. The survey questionnaire was derived from the above-mentioned 2003 CASE National Baseline Study.

The collection of data was not without challenges. Firstly, there was a challenge with accessing respondents for the survey. This was due to mistrust that existed within the community and its experiences with similar exercises in the past. In order to solve this, the FHR and UNHCR held consultations with leaders from the Rwandan community in South Africa, which eased tensions and helped the community to better understand the purpose of the study. Another challenge was related to the selection of respondents once access was granted. As opposed to random selection, as initially proposed, we had to rely on trusted members of the community to select respondents that fit the criteria of the survey. Respondents would have to be a Rwandan asylum-seeker or refugee with at least one dependent under the age of 18 years old.

The trusted members of the community were trained by the FHR on how to collect data and load it into the KOBO application on their allocated mobile phones. The two-day training workshops ensured that each fieldworker was capacitated to collect data. However, there were still some challenges encountered in the field with some respondents refusing to participate in the study due to fear of threats or intimidation.

The survey was concluded with 356 respondents overall as opposed to the targeted 400. Following the completion of the survey, the FHR research team used R Studio to analyse the responses. In the meantime, the focus group discussions were held in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The four group discussions were informed by the focus group guidelines discussions, which were developed in line with the questions in the survey. Separate discussion groups were organized for women, men, girls and boys under the age of 18. The write-up of the report was done by the FHR research team and feedback was given by some members of the Rwandan community, two experts in the field of migrant, refugee and asylum-seekers rights, and the UNHCR.