Smartphones for safety: digital technologies and the refugee’s journey
-
Upload
mysociety -
Category
Technology
-
view
253 -
download
0
Transcript of Smartphones for safety: digital technologies and the refugee’s journey
SMARTPHONES FOR SAFETY: DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND THE REFUGEES’
JOURNEY
Anamaria TopanUniversity of Innsbruck, Austria
Introduction
- the importance of the research focusing on the journey of the refugees
- giving space to the voices, needs and aspirations of refugees
- Focus on the Balkan route in the context of the current ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe
- The critical importance of communication technologies for refugees to manage the journey, keep contact with loved ones, staying abreast of developments
Percentage of Syrian refugees in the main receiving countries
EU Turkey Lebanon Jordan
0
5
10
15
20
25
percentage of total popu-lation
First contact: Smugglers• Smartphones and access to internet were crucial in getting
the necessary information to plan the journey• smuggling with consent of authorities: complex transnational
networks• Risks: trafficking - robbing, death threats, forcing into sexual
exploitation and drug dealing• Plus: provide services, facilitating mobility of refugees due to
lack of legal routes• Need for a change of paradigm: form a discourse of law and
order to one centering on persecution and flee• Central role of refugee’s agency
Main developments along the Balkan routes
• 1. Route - the shortest and the cheapest - Greece, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Germany
• mid-September 2015: Hungary closes its border• 2. Route: Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Austria and Germany• November 2015:
- free train services from Serbia to Croatia- transit limited to war refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq
• February 2016: • - direct transport corridor from Macedonia to Austria
- Austria introduces a daily limit of 3200 refugees, Croatia: 580- Macedonia stops Afghans at the border
• March 2016: - complete closing of the Balkan route (March 8)- EU-Turkey deal comes into force (March 20)
Communication technology• The crucial importance of communication for refugees: smartphones as an
indispensable tool to find assistance, communicate with family and friends, organizing the travel at each stage, keeping with the news, reuniting with family etc.
• Governments, international NGOs, UN bodies, companies came together to provide technical infrastructure along the route, i.e. NetHope, Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), Google, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF)- Wi-Fi connectivity- charging stations- public TV setsEx.: TSF data- 269.814 devices connected to the Wi-Fi; an average of 150 WhatsApp messages sent/phone, GB used: 23.946
New Aesthetics • The omnipresence of images in the media and
social media: witnessing what happens in real time
New Aesthetics
• Production of AmbivalenceI. The ‘Willkommenskultur’, especially in Germany, Austria, Greece
II. The flourish of the extreme right political spectrum
• ‘visually frustrating’• The New Year’s Eve attacks of women in Köln• The recent terrorists attack in Paris and Brussels• Instrumentalising the debate for political gain:
- offering simplistic explanations of a complex phenomenon, providing anchors- exploiting people’s fatigue with intellectual arguments, their need for peace and safety
Main consequences of the refugee crisis
I. The EU-Turkey Deal- Turkey declared a safe country =>refugees
crossing the sea from Turkey into Greece are now illegal
- ‘one for one scheme’ - EU Commission agreed on 72.000 refugees
- 6 billion aid for Turkey- Visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to EU
Problems:
• Turkey is not a safe country: at war with Kurds and IS• Huge number of refugees, with pressure on the local
population: social tensions, affected tourism• High corruption of the political elite and unreliability of
the President Erdoğan • Massive infrastructure needed for implementation of
return and resettlement of refugees• Unwillingness of EU countries to implement visa-free
travel for Turkey• Reluctance of many EU members to resettle refugees
II. Security and Protection
• Double the staff and increasing the budget of Frontex• Creating of a European Border and Coast Guard
Agency• Increasing security, border control, militarization of the
borders • Increasing support for Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey –
pressure to liberalize their health and work market for refugees
• Political pressure for the Syrian peace negotiations to work
Conclusions
• Inability of EU to find a a different approach to the refugee crisis: focus on burden, criminalizing => protection and border closures, detention and forced deportation
• the importance of digital management in allowing the refugees to remain ‘sane’ and negotiate their environment of barriers and obstacles
• smartphones and internet access (social media) are vital components in articulating refugee voices, in catalyzing their agency and marking their diversity
• signal the need for a paradigm shift from viewing refugees as passive, dependent and homogenous to seeing them as a resource of agency, in(ter)dependence and innovation