Migration Research network: Migration Research network: Digitally mediated refugee (re)settlement
Channel: e socsci
Date: 2017-11-10

Digitally mediated refugee (re)settlement: Social media and belonging Speaker: Assoc Prof Jay Marlowe The world is currently witnessing unprecedented movements and numbers of forced migrants since World War II. Heated local, national and international debates focus on the impact of resettling refuges in relation to social cohesion, capacities to integrate, national identity, the allocation of finite resources and the potential implications for security and safety. Internationally, political parties have recently leveraged populist support where a ‘politics of fear’ has justified particular anti-immigration agendas and policies. Alongside these developments, the proliferation and accessibility of a wide range of digital communication technologies is transforming the structure and role of social networks. The use of these technologies raises additional questions about the ways people interact with others in places proximate and distant. This presentation considers these contemporary and fast moving political, technological and social developments to highlight the relational, civic and structural engagements that inform the settlement futures in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond.