Vulnerability of displacement: challenges for integrating refugees and asylum seekers in host communities

Abstract

This paper focuses on the issues refugees and asylum seekers face in their daily lives in Australia. We present findings from a field study that included a mix of fourteen participants involving refugees, asylum seekers, activists and community workers, who participated in a cultural probes inspired and semi-structured interview studies. The probes approach was adopted to involve refugees and asylum seekers in a set of engaging and creative activities in order to elicit their experiences related to displacement, cultural preferences and beliefs. Our findings reveal three main challenges refugees and asylum seekers in Australia face: mistrust, cultural barriers and displacement trauma. In the paper, we discuss examples from the field and provide implications for designing technologies that can support and empower refugees and asylum seekers.