Future's Butterflies

In a New Land

“…For example, Dahya and Dryden-Peterson [12] found that mobile technology was central to expanding the opportunities for Somali refugee women's education in the Dadaab refugee camps of Kenya. Fisher et al [22] studied how Syrian youths use connected technology to help others in the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan, whilst Maitland and Xu [37] found that a large majority (86%) of refugees in the same camp owned a mobile phone. Talhouk et al [50,51] 57].…”

“…As the HCI literature at the intersection of refugee and mobile phone studies illustrates [e.g. 1,12,22,43,50], security in the context of newcomers is driven as much by the functionality of the mobile phone as the integrity of the mobile phone platform. Hence, a broad interpretation of security needs to be developed to build a design framework and to further develop support strategies that embrace both the freedoms that mobile phone use can enable and the need to protect from the harms that can be introduced by that same use.…”

“…Previous HCI work on mobile phones and refugees has given a focus to the benefits of designing better technology and ensure greater connectivity for this group of individuals and how such initiatives might improve the lives of this perceivably vulnerable group [e.g. 1,12,22,43]. Whilst such discussions are critical, our findings crystallise that there is also the need to broaden this security frame to include sociological understandings of ontological security and theories of everyday security to reflect both positive and negative security, and in practical terms, how individuals can balance both types of security.…”

“…They show how the mobile phone becomes a safe space when traditional institutions of safety break down, whilst also illustrating that these spaces come with certain threats and vulnerabilities that reduce the capacity for deliberative decision-making and reflective judgments on the uses of the mobile phone. This is significant as previous studies [2,22,43,51] and humanitarian reports [52] on refugees and mobile phones have focused almost exclusively on the benefits of increased connectivity for this community, with little recognition of the negative aspects that might be fostered by mobile phone use in this context [18]. There is an implicit assumption in the existing body of work that mobile phones enable and promote different personal freedoms and a sense of individual security.…”

MaRIS - Migration and Refugee Information Studies Research Project

“…The Minority Research profile is a strategic and cross-boundary research area "which taps into the new situation where cultural, political and religious differences together with issues related to in-group and out-group positions pose major challenges to societal cohesion, peace-building and human well-being on a global scale" (Åbo Akademi University, 2017). Professor Karen Fisher from the Information School at University of Washington, who has experience with research on immigrants' and refugees' information behaviour (Fisher, Bishop, Fawcett, & Magassa, 2014;Fisher, Durrance, & Hinton, 2004;Fisher, Yefimova, & Yafi, 2016), is recruited part time to support and further strengthen the profile.…”