TY - JOUR
T1 - Resilience, smartphone use and language among urban refugees in the Global south
AU - Netto, Gina
AU - Baillie, Lynne
AU - Georgiou, Theodoros
AU - Wan Teng, Lai
AU - Endut, Noraida
AU - Strani, Katerina
AU - O'Rourke, Bernadette
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Scottish Funding Council-Global Challenges Research Fund. The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of the 54 refugees who participated in the workshops, our NGO partner and all the agencies which contributed valuable insights through the research process. We would also like to thank the editorial team at JEM and two anonymous reviewers for their incisive and valuable comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022/2/17
Y1 - 2022/2/17
N2 - The formidable challenges faced by urban refugees in the Global South have received considerable attention, calling for new approaches to support their resilience. Although critical interest in resilience and the role of digital technology in enabling refugees to navigate their new surroundings has been growing, little attention has been paid to the influence of language and literacy in processes of resilience-building and the use of such technology. This is important due to the diverse linguistic resources which refugees bring with them and the central role of language in adapting to contexts of forced displacement. We develop a conceptual framework for examining refugees’ transnational use of smartphones and apply the framework to data collected from participatory workshops with fifty-four Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Results revealed varying degrees of digital literacy, linguistic capital and literacy in three main languages: the Rohingya language which refugees bring with them, Bahasa Malaysia, the national language of Malaysia and English, which is widely spoken in Malaysia. These variations significantly shape resilience-building strategies. Greater attention to the role of language and literacy in refugees’ use of digital technology will contribute to better understanding of the capacity for resilience among these individuals and more effective digital solutions.
AB - The formidable challenges faced by urban refugees in the Global South have received considerable attention, calling for new approaches to support their resilience. Although critical interest in resilience and the role of digital technology in enabling refugees to navigate their new surroundings has been growing, little attention has been paid to the influence of language and literacy in processes of resilience-building and the use of such technology. This is important due to the diverse linguistic resources which refugees bring with them and the central role of language in adapting to contexts of forced displacement. We develop a conceptual framework for examining refugees’ transnational use of smartphones and apply the framework to data collected from participatory workshops with fifty-four Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Results revealed varying degrees of digital literacy, linguistic capital and literacy in three main languages: the Rohingya language which refugees bring with them, Bahasa Malaysia, the national language of Malaysia and English, which is widely spoken in Malaysia. These variations significantly shape resilience-building strategies. Greater attention to the role of language and literacy in refugees’ use of digital technology will contribute to better understanding of the capacity for resilience among these individuals and more effective digital solutions.
KW - Refugee
KW - language
KW - literacy
KW - resilience
KW - smartphone use
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108291580&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1941818
DO - 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1941818
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85108291580
SN - 1369-183X
VL - 48
SP - 542
EP - 559
JO - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
JF - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
IS - 3
ER -