Trust Building and Future Construction via Smartphones and Social Media at intermediate Locations of Transnational Migration with the Example of Refugees from East Africa

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Schönhuth, since 1/2023
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 422709975

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

The project focuses on the role of smartphones and social media in trust building and future construction for refugees at intermediate locations of transnational migration. The main research questions were how refugees who are restricted in their freedom and mobility imagine and plan their future, what role smartphones and social media play in this process and who, which people, content, media and platforms they trust or distrust in which context. This was investigated using the example of refugees from East Africa living in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya or urban settlements in Kenyan cities. To this end, the researcher observed the everyday life and work of the refugees and conducted discussions, interviews and focus groups on the topic. In addition, the importance of smartphones and social media for trust and future was discussed with refugees in a two-day workshop. The field research took place over a total of four stays of 1-3 months over a total duration of 9 months in Nairobi, Eldoret, Kakuma and Mombasa. The results show the different future imaginations, plans, possibilities and barriers of the migrants, such as a life in Kenya or overseas, a return to their place of origin or remaining in the camp. The migrants deal with opportunities and barriers differently depending on individual or community factors.

Publications

• Geflüchtetenunterkünfte und Lager als Grenzparadigma: Lebenswirklichkeiten in Zeiten der Coronapandemie. BorderObs 02.06.2020.
  Böhme, Claudia & Anett Schmitz
  
• Geflüchtetenunterkünfte und Lager als Grenzparadigma: Lebenswirklichkeiten in Zeiten der Coronapandemie. Borders in Perspective. UniGR-CBS Thematic Issue 4: 95-100.
  Böhme, Claudia & Anett Schmitz
  
• The Future in the work of artists from Kakuma refugee camp. 16th EASA biennal conference. Virtual Lisbon conference, 22.07.2020.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Trust-building and Future Construction through Smartphones and Social Media at Intermediate Locations of Transnational Migration. Interdisciplinary lecture series "Flight, Migration and Im/Mobility: Interdisciplinary Perspectives", University of Trier, 15.01.2020.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Fluchtmigration in Zeiten der Corona-Krise: Ethnografische Perspektiven aus Griechenland (Moria) und Kenia (Kakuma). Fluchtmigration und Geflüchtetenunterbringung. Interdisziplinäre Dialoge. University of Trier & Klagenfurt. 13.04.2021.
  Böhme, Claudia & Anett Schmitz
  
• Reading the Corona crisis from a post-migrant perspective? From Separating Refugee Accommodations to the Urban Vision of a Cosmopolitan Solidarity Plan. In: Moritz Schramm, Hans Christian Post, Anna Meera Gaonkar (Eds.) Postmigrant: Art, Culture and Politics in Contemporary Europe. Bielefeld: Transcript. 319-340.
  Böhme, Claudia, Marc Hill, Caroline Schmitt & Anett Schmitz
  
• Refugee 2.0. Critical Pedagogy, Race, and Media, 69-90. Routledge.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Trust Building and Future Construction via Smartphones and Social Media at intermediate Locations of Transnational Migration. Migrant Belongings. Digital Practices and the Everyday. Online Conference, Utrecht University, 23.4.2021.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Making sense through myth and commentary: The social media practices of refugees living in Kakuma refugee camp. Workshop Commentary and (social) media in East Africa. Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz,13.06.2022.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Refugee’s agency and coping strategies in refugee camps during the coronavirus pandemic: ethnographic perspectives. Comparative Migration Studies, 10(1).
  Böhme, Claudia & Schmitz, Anett
  
• Rethinking research methods and ethics in African Forced Migration research. Workshop African Forced Migration Research in Germany, Arnold-Bergstraesser Institut Freiburg, 11.06.2022.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Social Media as a tool for future-making. Kakuma Refugee Camps inhabitants’ entrepreneurial and artistic projects, off-and online. 17th EASA Biennial Conference 2022, Queen’s University Belfast, 26.07.2022.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Digital Communication Practices around the Experience of Resettlement from Kakuma Refugee Camp to Germany. sozialpolitik.ch.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Postcolonial migration management in Kenya-views from migrants in Nairobi, Kapsoya and Kakuma Refugee camp. IMISCOE Spring Conference, Université de Cote d’Azur, Nizza, 15.03.2023.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Vertrauensbildung und Zukunftskonstruktion über Smartphones und soziale Medien an Zwischenorten transnationaler Migration am Beispiel von Geflüchteten aus Ostafrika. Institutskolloquium des Instituts für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien, Johannes Gutenberg- Universität Mainz.17.01.2023.
  Böhme, Claudia
  
• Epilogue: The Power of Arts for Future Making in East Africa: From Kakuma Refugee Camp and Beyond. Special Issue: Art and Imagined Futures in Eastern Africa. Nordic Journal of African Studies Vol 33(2): 178-184
  Böhme, Claudia