Vulnerability of displacement: challenges for integrating refugees and asylum seekers in host communities

This paper focuses on the issues refugees and asylum seekers face in their daily lives in Australia. We present findings from a field study that included a mix of fourteen participants involving refugees, asylum seekers, activists and community workers, who participated in a cultural probes inspired and semi-structured interview studies. The probes approach was adopted to involve refugees and asylum seekers in a set of engaging and creative activities in order to elicit their experiences related to displacement, cultural preferences and beliefs. Our findings reveal three main challenges refugees and asylum seekers in Australia face: mistrust, cultural barriers and displacement trauma. In the paper, we discuss examples from the field and provide implications for designing technologies that can support and empower refugees and asylum seekers.

[1]  P. Resnick Beyond Bowling Together: SocioTechnical Capital , 2001 .

[2]  Stefan Schutt,et al.  The Challenge of Technology Research in Sensitive Settings: Case Studies in 'ensitive HCI' , 2015, OZCHI.

[3]  Harvey Krahn,et al.  Social capital and refugee resettlement: The social networks of refugees in Canada , 2003 .

[4]  Khorshed Alam,et al.  The digital divide and social inclusion among refugee migrants: A case in regional Australia , 2015, Inf. Technol. People.

[5]  Gerrit C. van der Veer,et al.  Organizational probes: exploring playful interactions in work environment , 2008, ECCE '08.

[6]  Tawanna Dillahunt,et al.  Fostering social capital in economically distressed communities , 2014, CHI.

[7]  Patrick Olivier,et al.  Syrian Refugees and Digital Health in Lebanon: Opportunities for Improving Antenatal Health , 2016, CHI.

[8]  Jennifer Baranoff,et al.  Lantern: Empowering Refugees Through Community-Generated Guidance Using Near Field Communication , 2015, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[9]  Jonathan Mond,et al.  Mental health literacy of resettled Iraqi refugees in Australia: knowledge about posttraumatic stress disorder and beliefs about helpfulness of interventions , 2014, BMC Psychiatry.

[10]  J. Coleman,et al.  Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[11]  L. Kulik,et al.  Older adults as digital content producers , 2013, CHI.

[12]  Stephen Snow,et al.  More than just Food: Field Visits to an Emergency Relief Centre , 2015, OZCHI.

[13]  Stephen Lindsay,et al.  Designing for- and with- vulnerable people , 2013, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[14]  Nitin Nick Sawhney Voices beyond walls: the role of digital storytelling for empowering marginalized youth in refugee camps , 2009, IDC.

[15]  Lyal B. Harris November , 1890, The Hospital.

[16]  Nadia Caidi,et al.  Information practices of immigrants , 2010, Annu. Rev. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[17]  Ramon Spaaij,et al.  ‘We Are Not Here to Claim Better Services Than Any Other’: Social Exclusion among Men from Refugee Backgrounds in Urban and Regional Australia , 2013 .

[18]  J. Hughes,et al.  Designing with Care: Adapting Cultural Probes to Inform Design in Sensitive Settings , 2003 .

[19]  Rebecca E. Grinter,et al.  Designing for Transient Use: A Human-in-the-loop Translation Platform for Refugees , 2016, CHI.

[20]  R. Park,et al.  Introduction to the Science of Sociology , 1921 .

[21]  Margot Brereton,et al.  Never too old: engaging retired people inventing the future with MaKey MaKey , 2014, CHI.

[22]  R. Putnam Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital , 1995, The City Reader.

[23]  Patricia Galloway,et al.  Social capital and information technology , 2006, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[24]  Konstantin Aal,et al.  Come_in@palestine: adapting a german computer club concept to a palestinian refugee camp , 2014, CABS '14.

[25]  Brendan Walker,et al.  Cultural probes and the value of uncertainty , 2004, INTR.

[26]  Patrick Olivier,et al.  Refugees and HCI SIG: The Role of HCI in Responding to the Refugee Crisis , 2016, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[27]  Steven Pemberton,et al.  CHI '97 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 1997, CHI 1997.

[28]  L. Yardley,et al.  Research Methods for Clinical and Health Psychology , 2003 .

[29]  Lesley Schulte,et al.  Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community , 2009 .

[30]  Alastair Ager,et al.  Understanding Integration: A Conceptual Framework , 2008 .

[31]  J. Westermeyer,et al.  Trauma and coping in Somali and Oromo refugee youth. , 2004, The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

[32]  L. Manderson,et al.  Somali women and well-being: social networks and social capital among immigrant women in Australia. , 2004 .

[33]  William W. Gaver,et al.  Design: Cultural probes , 1999, INTR.

[34]  Yvonne Barnard,et al.  Learning to use new technologies by older adults: Perceived difficulties, experimentation behaviour and usability , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[35]  Metropolis Journal of international migration and integration , 2000 .

[36]  Andrew F. Monk,et al.  Pay or delay: the role of technology when managing a low income , 2014, CHI.

[37]  Robert D. Putnam,et al.  Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community , 2000, CSCW '00.

[38]  Konstantin Aal,et al.  3D Printing with Marginalized Children - An Exploration in a Palestinian Refugee Camp , 2015, ECSCW.

[39]  Anind K. Dey,et al.  Reflecting on pills and phone use: supporting awareness of functional abilities for older adults , 2011, CHI.

[40]  Kara Pecknold Dialogue through design: visual communication across the cultural divide , 2009, C&C '09.

[41]  Michael J. Muller,et al.  Participatory design: the third space in HCI , 2002 .

[42]  Konstantin Aal,et al.  Computer-Enabled Project Spaces: Connecting with Palestinian Refugees across Camp Boundaries , 2015, CHI.

[43]  Volker Wulf,et al.  Locating computer clubs in multicultural neighborhoods: How collaborative project work fosters integration processes , 2011, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[44]  Karen E. Fisher,et al.  Future's Butterflies: Co-Designing ICT Wayfaring Technology with Refugee Syrian Youth , 2016, IDC.

[45]  Karen Duke,et al.  Refugee resettlement in Europe , 1999 .