Exile Within Borders: Understanding the Limits of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Iraq (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
Research in ICT about forced displacement focuses mainly on refugees. Internally displaced people (IDPs), however, are rarely discussed in ICT and related disciplines. This paper aims to fill in the gap and provide an insight into the everyday lives of IDPs and their ICTs usage based on our original fieldwork at several IDP and refugee camps in northern Iraq. Our work includes extended field observations, surveys with 86 IDPs and 46 refugees, and examination of recent reports about IDPs from international NGOs that have been active in that region. Our findings illustrate that IDPs live under similar resource-constrained environment as refugees and, in some cases, suffer from even harsher restrictions. We highlight how these confines limit their ICTs usage and discuss opportunities for future ICT research to improve the quality of life of the displaced residing within their own borders.
Digitizing Refugees: The Effect of Technology on Forced Displacement
gnovis: A Journal of Communication, Culture & Technology, 2016
This paper examines broadly the role of technology in the lives of refugees and its influence on the trajectory of forced displacement today, a topic that has been covered extensively by the media but has not been as discussed in academic literature. I first examine the positive and negative effects of recent technological advances on the lived experiences of refugees. Technology has benefited refugees in allowing them to maintain relations with friends and family over large distances with improved communication apps and banking systems, in raising awareness about the challenges they face through social and online media, and in making it easier for them to receive aid from humanitarian organizations through the use of modern databases. However, technology has also been used to institute new forms of governmentality over refugees through the process of registration and has created new obligations and pressures on them from relatives still in the homeland. I then look at how states and humanitarian organizations have leveraged technology in formulating policy that deals with displaced people and provide some suggestions on how this can be further done, focusing on three specific sectors: aid distribution, education, and the private sector. At a time when the refugee crisis is reaching unprecedented heights, technology is shaping and will continue to shape in significant ways how states, humanitarian organizations, and refugees themselves are dealing with forced displacement.
Since the global response to the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for humanitarian assistance has grown dramatically. These technologies include mobile phones, applications ("apps") installed on phones, and computer connectivity or internet-based sites which receive data from or send it to phones. We call these collectively "platforms". Employing them has the potential to improve efforts to assist displaced people, or to liberate them in being more able to help each other, or both. The magnitude and visibility of the current refugee and migrant crisis has yielded a rich harvest of new platforms, a survey of which we cover in this paper. Similar to the acronym ICT4D, commonly used to denote the use of ICTs for development, we refer to the technologies in this paper collectively as ICTs for refugees and migrants, or simply ICT4RM. And while platform development has resulted in a patchwork of initiatives-an electronic version of "letting a thousand flowers bloom"-there are patterns emerging as to which flowers grow and have "staying power" as compared to ones that wilt and die. In hopes of providing guidance to wouldbe developers, we offer explanations for what leads to a successful ICT4RM initiative.
The Migration Conference 2017 Proceedings, 2017
Since the global response to the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for humanitarian assistance has grown dramatically. These technologies include mobile phones, applications (“apps”) installed on phones, and computer connectivity or internet-based sites which receive data from or send it to phones. We call these collectively “platforms”. Employing them has the potential to improve efforts to assist displaced people, or to liberate them in being more able to help each other, or both. The magnitude and visibility of the current refugee and migrant crisis has yielded a rich harvest of new platforms, a survey of which we cover in this paper. Similar to the acronym ICT4D, commonly used to denote the use of ICTs for development, we refer to the technologies in this paper collectively as ICTs for refugees and migrants, or simply ICT4RM. And while platform development has resulted in a patchwork of initiatives—an electronic version of “letting a thousand flowers bloom”—there are patterns emerging as to which flowers grow and have “staying power” as compared to ones that wilt and die. In hopes of providing guidance to would-be developers, we offer explanations for what leads to a successful ICT4RM initiative.
A series of interviews conducted in Amman, Jordan and Louisville, Kentucky posed the following questions: "How is information and communication technology (ICT) use affecting interpersonal communication patterns within the displaced Iraqi community in the US and Jordan?" and "What are the factors that limit the proliferation of the internet as a communication tool in that community?" Participants were individuals with legal refugee status and Iraqi nationality who left Iraq after the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War. Eight interviews were conducted in Louisville during the summer of 2012 and twelve were conducted in Amman during November 2012. Participants were asked demographic questions, as well as questions about their use of mobile phones and the internet. Based on these interviews and a survey of information collected on mobile phone and internet access in Jordan and Iraq, the researcher concluded that Iraqi refugees primarily utilize ICTs to communicate with relatives abroad. Younger participants in both Jordan and the US use ICTs to communicate with friends more often than older individuals. Participants in Jordan were more likely to call relatives in Iraq instead of using the internet than participants in the US. Interviewees in the US used smart phones, while few in Jordan did. Access issues for Iraqis in Jordan included cost and security concerns. Iraqis in the US had few access concerns. Differences between the two groups can be attributed to resource differences, as most of the participants in the US came directly from Iraq and came from well-off families and those in Jordan had exhausted their savings while waiting for resettlement. This study expands the information available on the subject of refugees' transnational communication patterns and could be helpful to aid and resettlement organizations in the future.
A Life on the Edge: Syrian IDPs
This article examines the challenges faced by internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Syria, based on facts and personal observations, and provides recommendations for the international community. IDPs are one of the most vulnerable groups of people in the current global context. Escaping from armed conflicts, generalized violence or human rights violations, IDPs leave their demolished houses or besieged towns, only to find themselves trapped within the borders of their home countries, unlike refugees who manage to cross an international border in order to take shelter in another country. Some Syrian IDPs have eventually settled in makeshift camps in the border areas after fleeing civil war. There are reportedly hundreds of thousands people living alongside the Turkish-Syrian border under very harsh conditions. Underlying these conditions and their continuing deterioration, this article attempts to demonstrate the importance of the role of international NGOs in improving the situation for IDPs.
Bits of Life: Leveraging Emerging Technologies to Improve the Livelihoods of Refugees
This thesis examines the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in improving the livelihoods and employment opportunities of refugees. The ongoing Syrian refugee crisis is considered not only as a humanitarian crisis, but through the lens of human rights. “Bits of Life” argues that improving the livelihoods of refugees is in accordance with refugees’ rights to work, based on the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the 1951 Refugee Convention. Furthermore, this thesis explores how access to reliable and affordable Internet serves as a crucial tool to help fulfill refugees’ efforts to obtain independent employment and economic security. Although access to the Internet has not yet been recognized as a basic human right, it plays a significant role in fulfilling refugees’ rights to freedom of expression and their rights to development. Issues surrounding the availability and utility of Internet access among refugees also raise important concerns regarding the right to privacy. By surveying existing technology-based humanitarian livelihood programs, notably Iraq Re:Coded, “Bits of Life” analyzes the successes and failures of existing initiatives and offers recommendations to improve the adaptability and effectiveness of future applications of ICTs in the field of refugees’ rights and livelihoods.
Exploring Refugees and ICTs: Innovating Towards Inclusion and Integration in Fragile Environments?
Centre for Frugal Innovation in Africa (CFIA), 2018
In this discussion paper, I explore the growing focus on ‘humanitarian innovation’ and its potentially transformative role in opening up new pathways to refugee support and livelihoods. I take a special look at the expanding role of ICTs in this regard in ‘digital humanitarianism’, and the various tools that have been designed to improve refugee lives. At a grassroots level, I then turn to ‘bottom-up innovation’ in diverse refugee settings, and discuss micro-entrepreneurialism amongst refugees and links to ICTs. I highlight gaps in understanding the scope, usage and impact of ICTs for self-reliance and livelihoods, and deeper social dynamics, particularly risks related to (growing) digital exclusion in more fragile environments (Ritchie, 2018).
ICT-enabled Refugee Integration: A Research Agenda
Communications of the Association for Information Systems
The recent phenomenon that has become known as the European refugee crisis is, in reality, a global problem. Accordingly, issues regarding refugee integration have become a central debate topic worldwide. In this paper, we examine how refugees use information and communication technology (ICT) in different regions across the world to understand how ICT supports their desperate journey to safety, their stay in temporary settlement camps, and their post-settlement inclusion in host countries. We conducted a series of interviews with Syrian refugees in Berlin, Germany, to collect preliminary insights. Then, we organized panel discussions at two key information systems conferences (ICIS 2016 and ECIS 2017) that involved participants from various countries. The panel discussions revealed seven key research themes: accessibility to information, availability of education and linguistic resources, admissibility to labor markets and entrepreneurship opportunities, communicability with home country, connectedness with local population, interactivity with host government, and volunteer coordination. We discuss how ICT might help to address issues related to each theme, present research questions relevant to each theme, and supply an illustration of how ICT has been employed to address an aspect of each theme. Insights gathered lead to theoretical implications and future opportunities for research in the information systems field, practical implications for different stakeholders interested in refugee integration to consider, and social implications related to refugee crisis that we cannot ignore.
A Life on the Edge: Syrian IDPs - Zümrüt Sönmez
This article examines the challenges faced by internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Syria, based on facts and personal observations, and provides recommendations for the international community.