REFUGEeICT

According to the prevailing public discourse, refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan that recently have arrived in Austria are both suffering subjects and a problem. They are reduced to the role of care recipients. However, there is no such thing as the refugee. Furthermore, refugees foster various care relations, including their role as active care providers. These relations and the multi-facetted roles refugees play have generally been ignored - not only in the political and media discourse, but also by academic research. The REFUGEeICT project attempts to fill this gap. The Arab Spring and the subsequent crises and wars have caused many people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to seek refuge in Austria. By accepting some 89,000 asylum seekers in 2015, Austria has become the fourth most important host country in the European Union. The REFUGEeICT project will research the lives of refugees in Vienna, their wider social contexts and responsibilities by focusing on the manifold care relations they maintain. It will thus add a necessary novel angle to the discussion. REFUGEeICT will provide deep insights into the life situations of asylum seekers and refugees in Vienna by paying particular attention to the multiple care relations they nurture in Austria as well as in their country of origin and elsewhere. Moreover, it will explore the meaning and use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the context of displacement and multi-local care commitments. REFUGEeICT will produce novel empirical findings based on a mix of innovative qualitative methods that combine ethnography with digital media studies and include digital diaries, participant observation (face-to-face and online), in-depth interviews and mapping of care relations. It will provide ample opportunities for developing theoretical insights at the intersections of anthropology and digital media studies, in the transdisciplinary research fields of refugee/forced migration studies and (transnational) care. Its theoretical findings will speak particularly to the relationship between new ICTs and care in the context of displacement, emplacement and home- making. While this research is first and foremost conducted for academic purposes, it will also have a timely and relevant socio-political dimension. REFUGEeICT will contribute to a better understanding of how recently arrived refugees resume care responsibilities and duties in their countries of origin as well as in Austria. Thereby it will provide policy makers with a fresh angle on the lives of refugees and will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of their life worlds within the wider society.

REFUGEeICT - Multi-local Care and the Use of Information and Communication Technologies Among Refugees Dr. Monika Palmberger The REFUGEeICT project concerned itself with refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who in 2015 represented the three main refugee groups in Vienna, Austria. Through in-depth empirical research this study investigated the active care relations - within and across national borders - refugees in Vienna embrace, and the specific role of information and communication technologies therein. This research took a digital ethnographic approach that is 'non-digital-media-centric' in its outlook. It drew on digital diaries, participant observation, and semi-structured narrative interviews. The findings show the potentials and limits of information and communication technologies as "media of care" in the context of forced migration. Against all the odds, informal care relations are maintained over vast distances and are mediated by various information and communication technologies. Moreover, findings show that such technologies do not only facilitate refugees' caring connections, locally and transnationally, but that they are also important for refugees in gaining political subjectivity and when claiming 'citizenship from below'. The project generated theoretical insights at the intersections of anthropology and digital media studies, in the transdisciplinary fields of refugee/forced migration studies, citizenship and in the study of care and specifically transnational care. Thereby this research contributes to the newly emerging research field of digital migration studies.