Rebuilding social capital: engaging newly arrived refugees in participatory design

Conflicts in Iraq and Syria have forced millions of minorities to flee their countries and seek refuge elsewhere. This paper investigates the factors that affect the social capital of newly arrived refugees in Australia and the role of information and communication technology in supporting the rebuilding of their social capital. We present the findings from 3 participatory design workshops involving 14 newly arrived refugees form persecuted minorities in Iraq and Syria. Our findings highlight three main factors that affect social capital for newcomer refugees: cultural adjustment, organizational support, and social activities and support. We discuss our approach that helped refugees voice their concerns and challenges and provide possible venues for design to support the rebuilding of social capital in a refugee context.

[1]  Alastair Ager,et al.  Refugee integration: Emerging trends and remaining agendas , 2010 .

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

[3]  M. Huysman,et al.  Social Capital and Information Technology , 2004 .

[4]  A. Portes.  Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology , 1998 .

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

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

[7]  A. Portes,et al.  Gaining the upper hand: Economic mobility among immigrant and domestic minorities , 1992 .

[8]  P. Adler,et al.  Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept , 2002 .

[9]  Cliff Lampe,et al.  The Benefits of Facebook "Friends: " Social Capital and College Students' Use of Online Social Network Sites , 2007, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[10]  Abdulrahman Abdulkadir Kurdi,et al.  The Islamic state , 1984 .

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

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

[13]  Rebecca E. Grinter,et al.  Reflection through design: immigrant women's self-reflection on managing health and wellness , 2014, CHI.

[14]  Bonnie Nardi,et al.  Survival needs and social inclusion: technology use among the homeless , 2010, CSCW '10.

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

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

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

[18]  W. Maziak,et al.  The tobacco epidemic in Syria , 2006, Tobacco Control.

[19]  Caroline B. Brettell,et al.  Migration Theory Talking across Disciplines , 2007 .

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

[21]  Zinnbauer Dieter.  Wat can Social Capital and ICT do for Inclusion , 2007 .

[22]  Erin Friess,et al.  Personas and decision making in the design process: an ethnographic case study , 2012, CHI.

[23]  G. Marsden,et al.  Participatory Design with Blind Users: A Scenario-based Approach , 2013 .

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

[25]  Dhaval Vyas,et al.  Designing for the Marginalized: A Step Towards Understanding the Lives of Refugees and Asylum Seekers , 2016, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.

[26]  Sandra M. Gifford,et al.  Ageing out of place: health and well-being needs and access to home and aged care services for recently arrived older refugees in Melbourne, Australia , 2007 .

[27]  L. Bartolomei,et al.  The Glue that Binds: an exploration of the way resettled refugee communities define and experience social capital , 2016 .

[28]  P. Bourdieu.  Forms of Capital , 2002 .

[29]  Z. El-Khatib,et al.  Syrian refugees, between rocky crisis in Syria and hard inaccessibility to healthcare services in Lebanon and Jordan , 2013, Conflict and Health.

[30]  Dhaval Vyas,et al.  Vulnerability of displacement: challenges for integrating refugees and asylum seekers in host communities , 2016, OZCHI.

[31]  Keith N. Hampton,et al.  Neighboring in Netville: How the Internet Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired Suburb , 2003 .

[32]  Stephen O'Brien,et al.  Bringing in Bourdieu's theory of social capital: renewing learning partnership approaches to social inclusion , 2005 .

[33]  I. Baird.  The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: The Foundation and the Defeat of the Most Well Known Terrorist Organization , 2019 .

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

[35]  R. Zetter,et al.  Immigration, Social Cohesion and Social Capital: What are the Links? , 2006 .

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

[37]  Konstantin Aal,et al.  Challenges of CI Initiatives in a Political Unstable Situation - Case Study of a Computer Club in a Refugee Camp , 2016, GROUP.

[38]  Tony Stockman,et al.  Participatory Design with Blind Users: A Scenario-Based Approach , 2013, INTERACT.