Social media empowering migrant communities
Last June 18th. we organised a round table session on social media and migration. Migrant media projects are one of the interesting clusters of projects supported by the Digital Pioneers Fund in the past few years. We decided that is was time to think about the state of migrant media as it is now and reflect on the challenges for the future. We hooked up with the European Bridge IT network and Digital Pioneer Maroc NL, a forum and chat community for Moroccans in the Netherlands and Belgium.
We had representatives of Turkish, Moroccan, Islam and Chinese platforms, pioneers, researchers and policy makers over to join our discussion and this is the first part of our report on our heated discussion. It reflects on the question how social media initiatives have empowered and facilitated migrant communities. Social media initiatives focusing on issues of migration and integration seem to work on three main goals: 1. Connecting diaspora and specific ethnic groups, 2. Generating dialogue and discussion and 3. Learn, inform and share knowledge. Some initiatives work on one goal specifically, and some on more than one at the same time. The overarching goal is to empower particular migrants or, in some cases, work on diversity in society.
1. Connecting diaspora and ethnic groups
Networking and communicating through the Internet increases the possibilities of migrant-groups enormously. It is hard to realize that up until recently migrants had to pay enormous phone costs to keep in contact with their family and friends. Important documents had to travel for days, or even weeks… However, looking at the initiatives represented at our round table, connecting certain ethnic communities within a particular country seems an important common need in this group as well. Through online platforms people of similar ethnic descent meet each other and share experiences. Altogether, migrants or people with migrant backgrounds can benefit enormously from possibilities social media offer.
A main possibility is to connect through specific ethnic oriented platforms like Maroc.nl (between 12.000 and 15.0000 unique visitors a day) or Turkishplace.nl (70.000 members), Ansaar.nl (Muslims) or Crtv.nl (Chinese) do. They approach their particular target group and create a convenient online atmosphere where relevant issues can be discussed, people can have a chat, information can be shared and others who have an interest in the specific group can approach them. Users find other users with similar questions, needs and interests.
The online initiatives can facilitate this community in different ways. Maroc.nl, for example, created ‘Ask Lina’, a tool that provides young people of Moroccan descent with the possibility to ask sensitive questions. On Turkishplace young people can start an account and communicate with each other in a Facebook kind of way. But the site is also used to connect students with companies that are specifically interested in this group. Ansaar.nl is a save online environment where Muslims can find each other, to talk about Islam, other social issues, or just have a general chat with likeminded people. Crtv.nl is an online space, related to tv and radio, for Chinese people in the Netherlands. They are currently experimenting with a blog where Dutch lifestyle and issues concerning living in the Netherlands are discussed.
Another sympathetic initiative is Hier-sta-ik.nl (here I stand) for young refugees in refugee centers in the Netherlands where they can present themselves and their talents to each other and the rest of the world. For this vulnerable group with a lack of means to communicate with the rest of the world and with a limited amount of freedom, this online medium provides them with the possibility to be connected and overcome their isolation.
Next to these national-oriented initiatives there are efforts to create international networks such as connecting Afghan students from Leiden University with the university in Kabul or to realize information network for refugees from Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Angola.
Altogether, by online networking isolation of people may decrease. Communities are no longer dependent of (powerful) state created or religious institutions to meet each other. Neither are they bounded to specific geographical sites. They are able to meet and organise themselves, locally or globally, through social media.
2. Generating dialogue and discussion
Migration comes with particular social, cultural and political issues. Issues like racism, cultural taboos and conflicts, identity and political representation need space to be discussed. Especially young people have to cope with many questions regarding their migrant background. By finding each other on Internet sensitive issues can be discussed and together they might come to solutions or at least a sense of empowerment. Moreover, there are online initiatives that not necessarily connect people of migrant descent but connect people in general about migration issues.
Maroc.nl initiates discussion on Islam and sexuality. They film live discussions on the topic and spread stories on their forum. Their platform is a perfect tool to break taboos, since their reach is big and the target group trusts the medium probably more than, for example, schools or government campaigns. Similarly, Ansaar.nl tries to fight radicalism within the own community by informing Muslims about Islamic identity and create room for constructive discussion.
Another interesting project was Splitscreen, this online initiative tried to facilitate discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Dutch youngsters. They intended to improve the (online-) discussion by mapping the arguments. As such arguments and lines of thought were visualized and people were confronted with the logic of their reasoning. Although the project eventually did not proceed, it showed nonetheless how highly sensitive issues might be approached with online tools.
Along the line of initiating and facilitating discussion on controversial issues Allincluded.nl puts the problem of illegality on the agenda. They inform the public about issues of illegal migration, and the inhuman consequences. They cooperate with people from African countries such as Mauretania, Senegal and Mali. As forum for communication they use the alternative news forum Indymedia. Since Indymedia is an independent online medium they are able to approach such sensitive and political topics with another perspective than regular media would. The legal status quo is not necessarily the frame of reference. This results in the fact that the discussion is more open and accessible for people who would otherwise not be heard, such as illegal migrants themselves.
The initiatives described above illustrate that online space creates possibilities it comes to discussing all kinds of social issues related to migration. The online space creates a more open and save atmosphere to talk about sensitive issues.
3. Learning, informing and sharing knowledge
A third goal of social media initiatives related to migration is to school or inform people. Since people of migrant communities have specific need when it comes to information and knowledge. The Dutch-Chinese website mentioned above, crtv.nl, explicitly informs Dutch-Chinese citizens of Amsterdam as well as Chinese visitors or students in Holland about all kind of issues concerning living in the Netherlands, even legal issues. CRTV broadcasts language lessons and translates Amsterdam news in Chinese and the other way around.
However, next to just inform people, innovative online tools are actively used as learning environments for processes of integration and language training. An excellent example is the Alane newsreader that shows how social and technological innovation can be combined. Alane is a tool that uses up to date news articles and transforms them in a customized language assignment. Customized in the sense that the program is responsive to the level of the student. Alane is available in public libraries across Amsterdam. An initiative along the same line has been the virtual integration game, used by municipalities, that informs migrants about participating in the Netherlands.
In addition, the initiative De Computerwijk has a particular methodology to train people from migrant communities with the specific goal to decrease the amount of 1.6 million digital illiterates in the Netherlands. An important element of the approach is that they visit people in their own environment such as community centres, Mosques etc. This approach has proved to be very successful and is spreading across the Netherlands.
Coping with health issues such as HIV/AIDS is extra difficult for people who have language difficulties, are restricted by cultural taboos or do not know their way to health institutions. The Lifeboat project produced a series of documentaries about people coping with the disease, which might inform and inspire people in the same situation. Currently they work on an online library to make the films available for anyone interested.
All in all, online initiatives for learning, informing and sharing knowledge prove to be an interesting option for specifically issues regarding migration. Information is free available at any time and place, and it is easy to get informed anonymously. Moreover, migrants can benefit from the added value of online didactic learning tools when it comes to language or integration training.
Researching the state of migrant media
We would like to hear your opinion on how social media initiatives have empowered and facilitated migrant communities the past few years. In our next blog we will focus on the question what challenges we see for the future of social media and migrant communities. Please comment and we will set the agenda together!
