Between Empowerment and Surveillance: Forced Migration and Information and Communication Technologies

Year 2024, Volume: 12 Issue: 23, 287 - 312, 14.03.2024

Mustafa Ammar Kılıç Muhammed Yasir Bodur

https://doi.org/10.20304/humanitas.1388211

Abstract

Amidst a surge in migration from conflict zones across the Middle East and Africa, leading to the arrival of more than a million displaced individuals in Europe, a nascent research field, primarily explored by European scholars, examines how information and communication technologies (ICTs) reshape refugees’ experiences during and after migration. This emerging inquiry explores how ICTs can empower displaced migrants, enhancing their resilience and enabling survival, family connection, adaptation, inclusion, and rights advocacy. Concurrently, recent studies in the area of border and surveillance underscore technology’s pivotal role in shaping security-oriented agendas within migration and mobility regimes across the US, EU, and other nations. This study systematically and critically reviews digital migration literature from 2006 to 2021 with metadata obtained and synthesized from Scopus and Dimensions databases, investigating the interplay between forced migrants’ use of digital technologies to navigate restrictive migration systems and their interaction with surveillance technologies. It seeks to identify the ambivalent positions in digital migration studies and assess migrants’ potential empowerment through ICTs.

Keywords

Forced migration, Information and communication technologies, Surveillance, Digital migration, Critical literature review

Thanks

We would like to thank Ayşen Üstübici, Burak Gürel, Çağlar Keyder, İbrahim Soysüren, and Zafer Yenal for their valuable comments and critiques.

Güçlendirme ve Gözetim Arasında: Zorunlu Göç ve Bilgi ve İletişim Teknolojileri

Abstract

Orta Doğu ve Afrika’daki çatışma bölgelerinden gelen göç akışı, neredeyse bir milyondan fazla yerinden edilmiş insanın Avrupa'ya varmasıyla sonuçlanınca, özellikle 2015’ten itibaren Avrupalı akademisyenlerin ön ayak olduğu yeni bir araştırma alanı ortaya çıktı. Bilgi ve iletişim teknolojilerinin (BİT) mültecilerin göç süreçlerindeki ve sonrasındaki deneyimlerini nasıl dönüştürdüğünü inceleyen bu araştırma gündemi, bir yandan yerinden edilmiş göçmenlerin BİT’leri hayatta kalma mekanizmalarını güçlendirecek şekilde nasıl kullandıklarını incelemekte; öte yandan bu araçların aile bağları, uyum ve hak arama gibi alanlarda onlara nasıl destek sağladığını ele almaktadır. Aynı zamanda, sınır ve gözetim çalışmalarındaki son gelişmeler, göç rejimlerindeki güvenlik odaklı hedeflerin şekillenmesinde teknolojinin kritik rolünü vurgulamaktadır. Bu çalışma, Scopus ve Dimensions veritabanlarından elde edilen ve sentezlenen meta verilerle 2006-2021 arasındaki dijital göç literatürünü sistematik ve eleştirel bir şekilde gözden geçirerek, zorunlu göçmenlerin kısıtlayıcı göç sistemleriyle başa çıkmak için dijital teknolojileri nasıl kullandıklarını ve gözetim teknolojileri ile girdikleri etkileşimleri incelemektedir. Böylece, dijital göç çalışmalarına hâkim bu ikircikli pozisyonların teşhis edilmesini ve BİT’lerin göçmenleri güçlendirme olasılığı konusunda bir çıkarıma varmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

Zorunlu göç, Bilgi ve iletişim teknolojileri, Gözetim, Dijital göç, Eleştirel literatür incelemesi

Thanks

Kıymetli yorum ve eleştirileri için Ayşen Üstübici'ye, Burak Gürel'e, Çağlar Keyder'e, İbrahim Soysüren'e ve Zafer Yenal'a teşekkür ederiz.

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