February 2019 Newsletter

Digital Citizens 7.4

Westy Egmont, Director IIL

Legal services providers, educators, and caseworkers need to understand the current realm of immigrants as global citizens of a digital world. 2.5 billion people on the planet have a smartphone, giving them access to the internet, mobile speech and text. Much of the world Global South leapt over landlines to cell technology, as evidenced by the fact that 66% of all adults have a cell phone.

“Thanks to technology, the experience of migration today is fundamentally different than the same experience 20 years ago. Communication technologies are empowering migrants by providing them with life-saving information about critical issues like safe escape routes. These tools also help migrants navigate displacement and maintain connections with family members and friends, in ways that were not possible for previous generations of migrants.”
-Dana Janbek, Boston University College of Communication

The essence of this month’s commentary is a webinar found here. There is an explosion of technology and media around migrants, and the voices being transmitted out are from the migrants themselves. The uses of these new technologies are key for providers to be aware of and informed about in order to work with and promote the empowerment of their client population. Facts, fears, opinions, questions, advice, and warnings flood into the lives of those seeking safety as they migrate, and calls for help, for solidarity, and action beckon the settlers. Technology improves application processes and access to assistance while amplifying the authentic voices of immigrants so that all can hear directly from the DREAMER, the separated mother, the CEO seeking his family’s right to come, or the laborer struggling with a system that denies any door to regularize her status. Unmediated reporting is potent as a primary source while also perpetuates heresy and is often dependent on anecdotal information. Digital networks connect millions who share a common language, life experiences, and aspirations.

Initiatives like Techfugee allow a newcomer in Belgrade to deal with identification papers or health issues while Trace the Face provides thousands of photos of travelers posted by families seeking information and reunification in 28 different countries. Creative endeavors and uses of popular apps unite people in realms without borders.

Among the displaced and current migrants who are not connected, two-thirds are within reach of 3G and 4G technology, leading to the conclusion that cost is the prohibitive variable denying this primary tool of the century to the poorest segment of migrants. Providers in this field face the complexity of high-use populations and no-use populations intermingled, requiring multichannel communication strategies for effectiveness. 55% of the world has internet access, and the combined forces of technology are transforming migratory trajectories. Addressing the digital divide remains a key issue well into resettlement.

Capitalizing On Tech

To appreciate the potential of utilizing digital approaches, consider Germany. The system in use when the wave of one million migrants flowed in, peaking in 2016, was direct person contact and form filling in an office. Then, an outside firm created ASYIL, and the capacity of intake for asylees jumped from 50,000 to 1 million per year via a direct online application system. BAMF can detect dialect and speakers’ origins as well as assist in tasks like the consistent translation of Arabic names into the Roman alphabet. In ASYIL, technology does not replace the human element; instead, the individual caseworker becomes 30% more productive thanks to much of the preliminary work being done by the applicant beforehand online.

The high level of texting within ethnic groups illustrates digital connectedness. The Chinese diaspora has language learning online groups through We Chat, while millions use it for typical messaging. Over 7 million Koreans outside Korea connect through Kakao Talk, while 43 million South Koreans make it the largest Korean social media platform in the world.

Many immigrant service organizations offer computer workshops. The Immigrant Learning Center (Mass) that has long combined computer-assisted English learning with live classes and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is creating a network of 60 multiple computer access sites - a major service helping immigrants get online. LULAC sites offer everything from mail access to college courses. Worker Centers are a natural site for providing web access. At Centro Humanitario in Denver, computers are always available to get day laborers online to connect and use other services.

Social media is under-recognized as a tool. While agencies feed the press and donors, the flow of information to newcomers and those in transit is of great value but is underdeveloped. Refugee-Center-on-line offers online classes but also provides quick access to information about what services are nearby to assist with housing, food, health, or the whereabouts of ethnic organizations, etc. Facebook is widely used. Mien Nam, a Vietnamese online community with 144,000 members, is a good example, and there are similar groups operated by varied nationalities and communities.

News outlets and governments routinely report on migration with alarmist stories. Headlines such as “Thousands mass at the border,” “A crisis,” “Emergency,” and “Invasion” are part of journalists framing the story, but seldom is the vast drop off in numbers such as the 30-year low migration of Mexicans given significant coverage. The immigrant community understandably develops its own voice and channels, seeking to avoid such misrepresentation and notable in its empathy. These are effective tools of social capital, helping migrants find one another and ease the risk and burdens of relocation. Abuse of information in the mainstream media, however, can drive to an alternative risk - pervasive misinformation. While caravans are readily assembled or boats are quickly filled in the Mediterranean, the human risk - the hard data about survival - is seldom known or shared. Intersections are needed, and members of the diaspora can play roles similar to those filled by the ethnic press in the US as viable, trusted sources of news. The government, acting through integration offices, increasingly shares multilingual education, health, safety, and security information, and these formal channels need to become integrated into the social media streams. Research is beginning that studies the development of technology as a new wall, how migrants are tracked and identified, as yet another dimension of the digital world.

Clinical Interventions

Can ICT be a tool to address human welfare? Beginning with the obvious value of virtual accompaniment, social media can deliver many resources. Open Forums, ideally attended to by social workers, could foster responses like ‘Blue Friends,’ a strategy for addressing depression, which is common for migrants who have experienced multiple losses and traumatic events. It is a hub of information that helps migrants recognize dangerous symptoms as well as discover appropriate resources for mental health or family stabilization. Empowerment for social action, such as uniting those with DACA status, addresses fear and frustration. And while its use for language learning online is obvious, social media can also be a tool of integration, often through the basic step of creating a new environment of acknowledged presence and the provision of a vehicle for participation. In a previous issue, the IIL covered the value of having an interpreter on-call with services such as Language Lines or free translations like Google Translate when professional interpretation is inaccessible. Language is power and a bridge. While agencies should be working hard to hire more bilingual and multilingual staff, services like Language Lines can create an essential bridge so that immigrant children and families can attain improved access to mental health services rather than disproportionally lack that access.

The creators of ICT assisted learning, and the providers of various technological tools would do well to look at the European model of an annual conference on communication research to further study the impact, the needs and the knowledge of how digital utilization can foster greater safety, improve tools and smooth pathways to integration. Those who have migrated have huge worlds and sustained ties; they are global citizens. Technological advances are helping these previously invisible communities live in virtual communities and have their voices heard. These technologies offer tools to providers to promote the empowerment of their clients and strengthen the wellbeing of the newcomer.