Posts Tagged ‘refugees’

blockchain and refugees

blockchain for refugees

As Norwegian Refugee Council research found, 70 percent of Syrian refugees lack basic identification and documents showing ownership of property.

The global passport

Host nations certainly has a share in the damage, as they face problems concerning the accessibility of vital information about the newcomers — dealing with the undocumented refugee, the immigration service can’t gain the information about his/her health status, family ties or criminal record, or verify any other vital data that helps them make a decision. Needless to say, this may lead to the designation of refugee status being exploited by economic migrants, fugitives or even the war criminals that caused the mass displacement to begin with.

Another important issue is data security. Refugees’ personal identities are carefully re-established with the support of clever biometric systems set up by the U.N. Agency for Refugees (UNHCR). UNHCR registers millions of refugees and maintains those records in a database. But the evidence suggests that centralized systems like this could be prone to attacks. As a report on UNCHR’s site notes, Aadhaar — India’s massive biometric database and the largest national database of people in the world — has suffered serious breaches, and last year, allegations were made that access was for sale on the internet for as little as $8

Finland, a country with a population of 5.5 million, cannot boast huge numbers of refugees. For 2018, it set a quota of 750 people, mainly flying from Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. That’s way less than neighboring Sweden, which promised to take in 3,400. Nevertheless, the country sets a global example of the use of effective technology in immigration policy: It’s using blockchain to help the newcomers get on their feet faster.

The system, developed by the Helsinki-based startup MONI, maintains a full analogue of a bank account for every one of its participants.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2018, the billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros revealed that his structures already use a blockchain in immigration policies

In 2017, Accenture and Microsoft Corp. teamed up to build a digital ID network using blockchain technology, as part of a U.N.-supported project to provide legal identification to 1.1 billion people worldwide with no official documents.

a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with blockchain platform IOTA to explore how the technology could increase efficiency.

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more on blockchain in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=blockchain

digital literacy from ISTE

4 things to know about teaching digital literacy to refugees

https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=2209
Digital literacy is not a given
The children of these adult refugees don’t struggle as much with technical skills as their parents do because they attend American schools with access to technology.
Access can be a barrier to inclusion
Lack of digital access can hamper refugees in many ways. An Australian study found that the lack of tech skills and access to technology affected refugees’ ability to integrate into their new communities.
Communication comes in many varieties

There are many slang terms, acronyms, idioms and confusing words like “mouse” rapidly thrown at these new arrivals.

We found a universal language using memes. Often dismissed as trivial and silly, memes can communicate across cultures. The image paired with a caption can immediately convey a message or feeling.

Creating global collaborators

Many refugees have lived in multiple countries, speak many languages and have family members living overseas. A hallmark of being a global collaborator, as outlined in the ISTE Standards for Students, is using digital tools to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, engaging with them in ways that broaden mutual understanding and learning.

Resources for teaching refugees

If you have refugees in your classroom, here are some organizations that offer resources you can incorporate into classroom settings.

The Wonderment. This nonprofit connects students from all around the world in collaborative service projects.

UNICEF. This global organization has up-to-date reports on the refugee and migrant crisis as well as ways you can get involved.

International Rescue Committee. This nonprofit helps refugees resettle in their community as well as provide both international and local resources.

Carrie Rogers-Whitehead is an ISTE member and CEO of Digital Respons-Ability. Her company teaches digital citizenship to refugees and she plans to publish findings about this work

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more on digital literacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+literacy

for more info on refugees and immigrants, pls consider this blog
http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/refugeesandmigrants/

Libraries supporting social inclusion for refugees and immigrants

http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/refugeesandmigrants/

Libraries supporting social inclusion for refugees and immigrants

UNESCO emphasizes the importance of social inclusion for international
migrants and encourages cities and local governments to “ensure social rights
for migrants to adequate housing, education, health and social care, welfare
and decent standard of living according to basic needs such as food, energy
and water.” Libraries can play an important role in helping new arrivals
acclimate and thrive in a new community.
Do you have a story to share about how your library, on its own or in
collaboration with community organizations, is providing social services and
support for refugees and immigrants? Do you have advice on creating successful
programming to support refugees and immigrants?

Proposal to the SCSU library administration:

Good afternoon,

I will be submitting a proposal about my individual work in that area:

In the fall of 2015, I organized a campus-wide meeting, including St. Cloud community members, on refugees and migrants, by inviting one Syrian and one Somali refugees:

I also reached out across campus (e.g. Dan Wildeson with the Holocaust Center, Geoffrey Tabakin, Stephen Philion).

I organized also the online presence by delivering the personal stories of three refugees:

http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/refugeesandmigrants/2015/09/19/personal-stories/

and organizing and maintain a blog on the issue of refugees and migrants: http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/refugeesandmigrants/2015/09/19/personal-stories/

In 2017, I proposed and taught a class on Migration : http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/hons221/ . I proposed the same class for the Honors program.

I also maintain a FB group for the class and in conjunction with the blog (you need to request permission to enter the FB group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/hons221

I am formally proposing / requesting to transition my individual efforts and offering the library to support me in expanding my acitivies on this topic

Here is my rational:

  • If not on campus, at least in the library, I am the only refugee and for that matter an immigrant. I have the understanding and the compassion of someone, who personally have experienced the hardship of being and immigrant and refugee.
  • I have amounted information and experience presenting the information and engaging the audience in a discussion regarding a rather controversial (for St. Cloud) issue
  • I have the experience and skills to conduct such discussions both F2F and online

Based on my rational, here are activities I am proposing:

  • The library supports a monthly F2F meetings, where I am taking the responsibility to host students with refugee and/or migrant status and facilitate a conversation among those students and other students, faculty, staff, who would like to learn more about the topic and discuss related issues.
    • Library support constitutes of: e.g. necessary information willingly and actively shared at Reference and Circulation desk. Library faculty and staff willingly and actively promoting the information regarding this opportunity when occasions arise.
  • The library supports my campus-wide efforts to engage faculty, staff and students. Engagement includes: e.g.,  proposals to faculty to present in their classes on including refugees and immigrants but related to their classes; assisting students with research and bibliography on their papers related to refugees and immigrants; assisting faculty and students with presentations including refugees and immigrants etc.
    • Library support constitutes of: e.g. necessary information willingly and actively shared at Reference and Circulation desk. Library faculty and staff willingly and actively promoting the information regarding this opportunity when occasions arise.

refugees and forced migration

REFUGEES AND FORCED IMMIGRATION ’17 / II. International Interdisciplinary Conference on Refugee and Forced Immigration Studies in Social Sciences, Humanities and Art
Conference  29th to 30th September 2017  Istanbul, Turkey
Website: http://www.dakamconferences.org/refugeesandforcedimmigration
Contact person: Ozgur Ozturk

All papers will be published in proceedings e-book as DVD (with an ISBN number) and then in DAKAM’s online library. A selection will be made in the relevant DAKAM JOURNAL that will be reviewed by Thomson&Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index.

Organized by: DAKAM
Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 23rd June 2017

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more on refugees in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=refugees