"This paper aims to shed light on the threats that young people living in refugee camps face in their use of Facebook. While social media enable a participatory process of communication (Russo et al., 2008), which is based on the agency of the communicator and defined by their own cultural and moral
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goals (Lee et al., 2023), these platforms can at times be inappropriately pursued if the communicator lacks relevant skills. The outcome of such a pursuit can also inadvertently damage social cohesion in the camp and lead to conflict.
Design/methodology/approach: A total of 17 semi-structured interviews were carried out in 2023 with young people between the ages of 20 and 29 living in Kakuma refugee camp. The young refugees were asked questions related to their own behaviour and practices on Facebook and to those of their peers. The focus was specifically on the context of the interactions with other youth in Kakuma and on the camp’s Facebook groups or pages.
Findings: Findings reveal that limited knowledge, understanding and awareness of the functioning and affordances of social media platforms such as Facebook are leading young refugees towards multiple risks involved in public online interactions. This has significant negative impacts not only on the lives of the youth who are active on social media in the camp but also on the relationships with their peers and overall community harmony.
Originality/value: A number of studies have identified some of the dangers arising for refugees operating in online spaces, and particularly on social media platforms (see, for example, Tech Transparency Project, 2022; Dekker et al., 2018). Yet, there is a lack of research on the outcomes that young refugees face in their immediate virtual and physical environment as a result of their online behaviour. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to bring to light the nature of the interactions and the dynamics that young, encamped refugees engage in on Facebook and to offer useful reflections that can inform digital literacy efforts carried out by development agencies." (Abstract)
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"Research on forcibly displaced people and their digital cultures have dominantly focused on utility-driven ends, primarily tied to goals of assimilation, social surveillance/tracking, economic betterment and other aid agencies’ specific agendas and outcomes. This approach negates much of their di
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gital life – that which is consumed by leisure and play, including popular media entertainment, gaming, romancing, and social networking, much like typical online users worldwide. Leisure has proven to be fundamental to social and mental well-being as it allows for unstructured time and thought (Arora, 2019), an essential gateway into self and community actualization. The restrictive lens of utility-centeredness may lead to insufficient data, or even directly contribute to misleading data, on these communities. This is significant, because this research base is often instrumentalized by aid agencies in their pursuit for equitable and meaningful connectivity for these targeted populations. This report takes a holistic approach by addressing one of the key gaps facing this demographic and their virtual life: digital leisure. While there is some primary research on how these communities engage with media platforms, digital networks, and online leisure content in diverse contexts, there is a need for a comprehensive synthesis of observations surrounding individuals’ multifaceted ‘media life’. This report seeks to address gaps in research and practice in this area of focus. The digital leisure approach supports the natural ways in which people navigate digital spaces and provides new opportunities to expand existing policies that ensure accountability and community-based responses to the need for digital inclusion." (Introduction, page 10)
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"The study was sparked by the absence of literature on transnational masspersonal communication (tmc) of 'Eritrean', 'Ethiopian', Oromo, and Somali diaspora communities. To bridge this theoretical gap, an empirical study was conducted at meso-level based on three questions: (a) what topics do people
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in the diaspora communities discuss in relation to their homelands via social media - an alternative for tmc; (b) how do they communicate about their homelands' issues in relation to their collective identities; and (c) how does this communication enable the construction of their own identity as well as the deconstruction of competing identities. The theoretical analysis from the perspective of these questions led to developing own model, i.e., the Diasporic Identity Construction in Transnational Masspersonal Communication Model (DICTMCM). This model, which connects the theoretical analysis to the empirical study, argues that their communication in relation to their homelands, particularly about their collective identities, consists not only of what they talk but also of how they converse. As a result, the empirical results delivered a comparative analysis of the tmc of these four diaspora communities and how they construct their collective identities via this tmc, which bridged the above stated gap." (Publisher description)
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"Comprising 41 chapters by a team of international contributors, the companion is divided into three parts: histories; approaches; thematic considerations. The chapters offer wide-ranging explorations of how forms of mediation influence communication, social relationships, cultural practices, partic
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ipation, and social change, as well as production and access to information and knowledge. This volume considers new developments, and highlights the ways in which anthropology can contribute to the study of the human condition and the social processes in which media are entangled." (Publisher description)
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"This OA book investigates the methodological and ethical dilemmas involved when working with digital technologies and large-scale datasets in relation to ethnographic studies of digital migration practices and trajectories. Digital technologies reshape not only every phase of the migration process
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itself (by providing new ways to access, to share and preserve relevant information) but also the activities of other actors, from solidarity networks to border control agencies. In doing so, digital technologies create a whole new set of ethical and methodological challenges for migration studies: from data access to data interpretation, privacy protection, and research ethics more generally. Of specific concern are the aspects of digital migration researchers accessing digital platforms used by migrants, who are subject to precarious and insecure life circumstances, lack recognised papers and are in danger of being rejected and deported. Thus, the authors call for new modes of caring for (big) data when researching migrants' digital practices in the configuration of migration and borders. Besides taking proper care of research participants' privacy, autonomy, and security, this also spans carefully establishing analytically sustainable environments for the respective data sets. In doing so, the book argues that it is essential to carefully reflect on researchers' own positioning as being part of the challenge they seek to address." (Publisher description)
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"La principal información que la población migrante, refugiada y retornada manifiesta necesitar para su vida en Cali, Colombia es: 78.3% sobre necesidades primarias, como acceso a servicios de salud, techo y alimentación; 62.1% sobre medios de subsistencia, como información laboral, educación y
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participación en la vida comunitaria; 51.7% sobre información legal, como nuevas leyes migratorias, orientación para la protección de derechos humanos, orientación para registros civiles y amparo a NNA. Los migrantes también han encontrado la mayoría de las barreras en el acceso a los servicios en estas áreas. Tanto la salud como la educación son temas considerados de alta prioridad por los encuestados, especialmente en lo que respecta a los menores de edad." (Resumen ejecutivo, página 4)
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"The potential benefits of increased digitalisation to refugees, living in situations where access to information and spaces for communication exchange are of the essence, are yet to be realised. Uganda’s forced migrants, both those in refugee settlements and those self-settled in urban areas, hav
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e demonstrated their eagerness to get and stay connected to the internet through social media platforms, regardless of the challenging context. The internet connectivity available to them ranges from cellular networking, wireless local area networking to personal area networking technologies. As communications systems and networks continue to grow and new social media applications are developed, the lives of refugees and humanitarians operating in settings of asylum are in reasingly likely to be affected in dynamic ways. As Maitland (2020) reminds us, connectivity (and its risks) can help overcome or ameliorate some of the sources of vulnerability. The road ahead is paved with complexities associated with refugee protection and inclusion in humanitarian programming in a ubiquitous digital environment, further accelerated by the exigencies of social distancing due to Covid-19." (Conclusion, page 35)
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"The current scale and duration of displacement prompts renewed urgency about livelihoods prospects for displaced people and the role of humanitarian organisations in fostering them. This special issue focuses on how aid organisations, together with the private sector and other actors, have worked t
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o include refugees in new forms of online work within the web-based digital economy. Building on comparative analysis and a comprehensive review of the field of digital livelihoods among the forcibly displaced, in this introductory article we argue that including refugees in this digital economy is currently neither a sustainable form of humanitarian relief nor is it a development solution that provides large-scale decent work. We show how digital livelihoods approaches have gained a special footing in the middle ground between short-term economic relief and long-term development. Indeed, digital economies seemingly offer a variety of ‘quick-fix’ solutions at the transition from humanitarian emergency towards long-term development efforts. While digital economies harbour significant potential, this cannot be fully realised unless current efforts to include refugees in digital economies are complemented by efforts to address digital divides, uphold refugees’ rights, and ensure more decent working conditions." (Abstract)
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"Because refugees face barriers to making a livelihood online, aid organisations and private enterprises support them by building bridges across digital divides, connectivity problems or skill gaps. They thereby become intermediaries and brokers that facilitate connections between refugees and onlin
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e income opportunities, which often lack decent working conditions and adequate protections. Because digital livelihood initiatives lack the power to reshape these conditions and the value of work in the internet economy, they fail to become mediators with a transformative impact. The result is that the internet economy reshapes livelihoods provision far more than aid can reshape its disempowering effects, despite successes in driving forward refugees’ digital inclusion. Based on more than three years of research including interviews, field visits and surveys, this article foregrounds the current risks that result from the inclusion of refugees into precarious forms of online gig work. To ensure a decent future of work for refugees in the internet economy, the current push for digital livelihoods will require an equally strong push for stronger protections, inclusive regulations and rights." (Abstract)
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"WeChat, launched in 2011, has rapidly become the most favoured Chinese social media. Globally available, equally popular both inside and outside China and widely adopted by Chinese migrants, WeChat has fundamentally changed the ways in which Mandarin-speaking migrants conduct personal messaging, en
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gage in group communication and community business activities, produce and distribute news, and access and share information. This book explores a wide range of issues connected to the ways in which WeChat works and is used, across the world among the newest members of the Chinese diaspora. Arguing that digital/social media afford a great degree of individual agency, as well as a collective capacity for sustaining an 'imagined community', the book shows how WeChat's assemblage of infrastructure and regulatory frameworks, technical capabilities, content and sense of community has led to the construction of a particular kind of diasporic Chinese world, at a time marked both by China's rise, and anxiety about Chinese influence in the West." (Publisher description)
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"1. Las lideresas comunitarias son el filtro informativo de servicios y ayudas que llegan a los asentamientos de Maicao [...] 2. El voz-a-voz como principal fuente de información y verificación [...] 3. El entretenimiento es el contenido de mayor consumo por encima del noticioso; este tipo de cons
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umo rápido se asocia a los índices de analfabetismo, la poca oferta informativa y las barreras estructurales [...] 4. El acceso a la información está limitado por la falta de infraestructura en los asentamientos [...] 5. A mayor edad, los canales digitales se utilizan como medio tradicional de llamadas, pero se referencia el uso de otros canales como la televisión y radio para buscar información [...] 6. Si bien los canales digitales como Whatsapp y Facebook son los predilectos, las personas confían más en la información que proviene de medios tradicionales, como la radio y la televisión [...] 7. La población proveniente de Venezuela tiene necesidades de información insatisfechas que afectan el acceso a servicios básicos y medios de subsistencia en Maicao ..." (Resumen ejecutivo, página 4 ff)
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"What kind of information are refugees looking for? Who do they communicate with? What ICT, social and digital media do they apply? What are their motives to use particular devices or services, from Facebook and WhatsApp to YouTube and TikTok? Are gender- as well as age-dependent differences to be o
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bserved? To answer these questions, data have been collected through an online questionnaire, interviews, as well as a content analysis of an online platform for refugees." (Publisher description)
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"The testimonies of caminantes [migrants and refugees travelling primarily by foot] interviewed for this study highlight the significant limitations of social media as a tool for inclusion among populations on the move in Venezuela and Colombia. It is important to note that caminantes are an acutely
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vulnerable population, and their experience is not necessarily reflective of other people affected by the crisis in Venezuela. Indeed, other evidence has demonstrated cases elsewhere in the country where networking across social media has proved a vital way for people to link up with sources of support in the face of collapsing state service provision. It is especially striking that, for many caminantes – even those who were previously well-off – years of economic hardship and the experience of displacement itself have driven them back across the ‘digital divide’. Although some of our interviewees indicated that they were familiar with social media, particularly Facebook, this is one of the first things they gave up as their living conditions became more precarious. This challenges the idea that people move steadily forward into more connected lives as their encounters with new digital technologies proliferate. It also sounds a note of caution against assumptions that people displaced from middle-income settings are likely to be more connected. While many people affected by conflict in Syria and elsewhere were able to flee with some of their assets intact, using their phones as digital lifelines on their journeys, this option was not available to interviewees in this study, for whom the erosion of their resources and livelihoods to almost nothing was itself part of the motivation to flee." (Conclusion, page 14-15)
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"This edited collection explores the role of digital inclusion in the welfare and social inclusion of vulnerable people. With interdisciplinary contributors from six continents, working in diverse fields such as digital media studies, social computing, community informatics and cultural studies, the
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collection brings together theoretical and applied research evidence on three vulnerable population categories: ethnic minorities, older people and people with disabilities. Each section is accompanied by a critical commentary on the research insights presented, from third sector community and policy experts. The collection explores whether vulnerable populations face similar experiences and challenges in relation to their digital inclusion status, stressing the central presence of intersectionality, and arguing for the inclusion of the age, ethnicity/immigration status and disability aspects of one's identity. At the same time, it argues for multi-directional action that tackles intersectional discrimination in the digital realm on behalf of more than one single population category or group. Challenging popular discourse on the overcoming of digital inequalities in the West, this essential book contends that accounts of non-western contexts do not focus on the parameter of vulnerability or on particular population groups." (Publisher description)
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"Cette évaluation de l'écosystème de l'information documente comment l'information autour de la pandémie de la COVID-19 est produite au Mali ainsi que les pratiques informationnelles des Populations Déplacées internes (PDI) dans les régions de Bamako, Ségou, Sikasso, Mopti et Tombouctou. Ell
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e s'appuie sur des entretiens approfondis et des discussions de groupe avec des membres de la communauté des Populations Déplacées Internes (PDI) vivant dans des camps de déplacés, des organisations humanitaires, des responsables étatiques et des professionnels de l'information ainsi que sur les données quantitatives d’une enquête menée à Bamako et Ségou. Il existe une multitude de médias avec des profils différents. Parmi eux, nous pouvons retenir les télévisions et les radios (publiques, privées, communautaires et confessionnelles), les médias numériques (le web, les médias sociaux), et la presse écrite (journaux quotidiens, publications périodiques) ainsi que les organismes professionnels liés à la diffusion de l'information. La pénétration des médias sociaux peut varier d’une région à une autre. Les populations des villes accèdent aussi plus facilement aux médias sociaux à cause de la limitation géographique de certains fournisseurs. Malgré cette apparente saturation de l'environnement médiatique, l’Enquête Démographique et de Santé (EDS 2018) démontre que 39% de femmes et 31% des hommes de la population malienne en général ne sont exposés à aucun média comme source d'information." (Résumé sommaire)
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"This Guide aims to support UNHCR country offices in the use of Social Media to protect People of Concern (PoCs) and ensure they enjoy their rights. We will show how UNHCR staff and partners can develop a Community-Based Protection (CBP) strategy, using Social Media in a way that respects UNHCR’s
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data protection policy and PoCs’ rights to privacy and security. The aim is to mobilize and support sustainable digital structures that represent everyone in a given community and develop appropriate protection responses on Social Media. In this guide, we define Social Media as websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube). We also mean software that enables messages to be sent and received instantly, also referred to as “Messaging Apps” (e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and FB Messenger). Social Media give people a voice but they are not entirely innocuous. Their capacity to generate and harvest huge amounts of metadata and inferred data mean they can be used and abused in ways not apparent to users, and beyond UNHCR’s control. This guide should be shared with all protection partners and stakeholders interested in how Social Media can enhance protection while avoiding security and privacy risks to People of Concern. With due diligence, Social Media can strengthen participation, engagement, transparency, outreach and advocacy. The aim is to incorporate the feedback, ideas and opinions of People of Concern in our future protection programming." (Page 9)
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