ReliefWeb

CONTEXT

During the large influx of asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants to Europe in 2015, it became apparent that most people started their journey without a clear understanding of what lay ahead of them. Many were unaware of the experiences they would have on the move and upon arrival. They were hardly aware of the intricacies of the European asylum system, nor did they clearly understand the rights and obligations of refugees in Europe. It was a mixed migration movement that included many people who were not entitled to protection, but were lured into leaving by the false promises of smugglers and, potentially, traffickers.

In order to understand decision making patterns, information needs and communication habits among the two largest groups, namely Arabic speakers (notably from Syria and Iraq) and Afghans, UNHCR started to monitor social media in Pashto and Dari as well as Arabic in March 2016.

The observations were summarized in weekly reports which brought to light valuable information about the modus operandi of smugglers, the dangers of trafficking, the misconceptions about asylum and life in Europe, the hopes and fears of those on the move, and the struggle with integration of those who arrived.

Social media monitoring (SMM) was originally intended as a temporary activity. Along with the findings from focus group discussions held with Arabic speakers and Afghans in four European countries, SMM was meant as preparatory research, feeding into the development of information campaigns, by which UNHCR intended to reach out to potential migrants and refugees before they embark on the journey to Europe, and before they pay large amounts of money to smugglers. Those who have a choice whether to leave or stay should be empowered to make informed decisions about their future.

Meanwhile, both campaign designs have been developed, and, once funding from the European Commission (DG Home) is released in 2017, the projects will start. However, the weekly SMM reports proved so valuable to several hundreds of recipients, including UNHCR field staff, other UN agencies, governments, EU institutions and even law enforcement agencies that a decision was made to continue the monitoring throughout 2016. Requests to dig deeper into some of the social media sites proved too demanding for a small team of only three researchers (two for Arabic and one for Pashto/Dari). UNHCR neither has the resources nor the mandate to follow up on many of the findings.

Therefore it was decided to gradually transfer the entire service to the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in Malta in 2017. There, SMM will be a permanent activity furnished with sufficient resources to develop it into a standard EASO service.

METHODOLOGY

When the researchers first started in March 2016, they did not know what they would find. Based on preceding focus group discussions it became clear that neither Twitter nor Instagram played a role among the two target audiences. Both groups, being grounded in an oral communication tradition, use Facebook as the logical medium that is bringing personal interaction up to 21st century standards. The majority of Afghan and Arabic refugees and migrants ignore institutional websites, news portals and media outlets unless links reach them via Facebook. A number of blogs and YouTube channels play a role as well, albeit secondary to Facebook. Private internet-based communication channels such as Viber and WhatsApp also play a role, but of course cannot be monitored.

Hence the team started researching Facebook for interactions on flight and migration. The social media monitoring was conducted in a purely qualitative way: the team started from a small number of pages and sites, gradually enlarging their outreach until they monitored a couple of hundred Facebook pages in Arabic and Dari (there is little information online in Pashto) on a continuous basis. They used accounts specifically created for the intended purpose and only observed without actively engaging other Facebook accounts, be they individuals, discussion groups, bloggers or smugglers. Only when the researchers came across smuggling pages which misused the logo of UNHCR they intervened with Facebook to have them closed down. In a few cases when other UN logos were detected, the organisations concerned were informed accordingly.

Each report thus provided a snapshot of the latest situation and the discourse among Facebook users. While this methodology does not provide quantitative data about people on the move or in Europe, it gives us a very clear picture of new developments and changes in the sentiment of the target audiences as well as the change in pricing and promotion strategies of smugglers.

Moreover, qualitative data provide an explanatory matrix, against which migration and population data can be evaluated in their social and cultural context. This report is based on the:

• Summary of 10 months of social media monitoring;

• Information obtained from focus group discussions with several hundreds of people in four European countries (Belgium, France, Germany and Austria) in early 2016 (the detailed reports are added in the annex);

• Insight gained from numerous discussions with transiting refugees and migrants in former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia during the author’s field work in 2015;

• Information obtained indirectly by the tow of the researchers when working with Afghan and Arabic speaking migrants and refugees from 18 October to 5 November 2016 in Calais.