Refugees Then and Now: Young Syrian Refugees, Smartphones and Social Media

As part of the Wiener Library’s Refugees Then and Now Series in conjunction with our new temporary exhibition, A Bitter Road: Britain and the Refugee Crisis of the 1930s and 1940s, we are pleased to host a talk by Professor Marie Gillespie (The Open University).

This lecture examines the use of smartphones and social media by young Syrian refugees and asks whether this small ubiquitous device is changing the nature of refugee experiences. The widespread use of smartphones is a distinctive feature of the recent human exodus from Syria but they entail dangers as well as benefits. On the one hand smartphones are a refugee essential : “to make the journey we need a phone, food and water – in that order”, Professor Gillespie was told.