Currently refugees interaction to others in their new home is primarily done through official organizations. There is little opportunity to interact with the majority of locals. Similarly, locals often have little awareness of the refugees in their own neighborhoods.
Nearby shifts this model and create a direct connection between refugees and locals, widening their community, augmenting the support refugees already receive, and hopefully freeing up resources at official organizations.
In order to generate empathy between refugees and local residents we needed to gain understanding for them ourselves. We spoke to … and … Additionally there is a third key stakeholder here which is the organizations that provide assistance to refugees.
Refugees are not a uniform group and their needs and experiences in their new homes can be impacted not just by cultural differences but by skills (literacy and technological exposure) and level of acculturation. A trend that came up for almost all refugees was that language barriers were a huge challenge for communication and acculturation. Even everyday tasks could be daunting when in a vastly new environment. One story that really stuck with us was one refugee who spoke about walking through a grocery store and being at a loss for wha to buy because brands and packaging were completely unfamiliar.
On the side of locals and established residents we saw that there was a spectrum of perspectives and attitudes towards refugees ranging from those that were actively opposed to refugees entering their country to those that regularly volunteered with them.
We found that even the most welcoming of locals couldn’t fully comprehend the experience of someone forced to flee their home and adjust to a completely different environment.
Volunteer opportunities don’t often accommodate schedules. We experienced this problem ourselves. We sought out multiple ways to volunteer over the course of this project, even though we had committed many hours a week towards understanding the refugee experience wasn’t able to find a volunteer opportunity that didn’t conflict with our classes.
There are already a lot of great organizations working with refugees who we had the opportunity to speak with ranging from JFCS who is the largest refugee resettlement organization in Pittsburgh, to grassroots non-profits helping with skill training to donation of goods to providing creative outlets for self expression.
As we gathered our insights, we plotted out the key points of the journey to acculturation. In the early stages, the primary concern is survival. Later on, when someone is well settled, the focus on needs shifts to spiritual fulfillment.
Forms of support exist for much of this process, but day-to-day acclimation early on can’t easily be handled by existing support organizations.
Based on the conversations we had with support organizations and potential helpers, we found an area of need that could be manageable by casual volunteers.
Recognizing that the refugee experience is not monolithic, we plotted out three axes that influence the way that new arrivals can acculturate. Set against one another, and with the addition of human factors based on gender and country of origin, these spectra came to represent four personas with which we could brainstorm possible interventions.
After considering the needs of our personas, we developed four scenarios representing different interventions. “Instant help” tested best, so we fleshed it out into a full app.