Computer-Mediated Communication and Refugee Resettlement: The Case of Social Media Use Among Syrian Refugee Youths in Ottawa, Canada

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The number of refugees around the world has been increasing at alarming rates. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2019), over 70 million people were forcibly displaced, worldwide, in 2018, including almost 26 million refugees. A significant share of this displaced population are children and youth, for whom questions of personal safety, trauma and mental health, education, skills development, employment, and social integration are of critical importance. Concomitantly, the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), including mobile devices such as smartphones, have resulted in the development of various computer-mediated communication technologies (CMCTs), including social media or social networking sites (Babkirk, Luehring-Jones, & Dennis-Tiwary, 2016; Kelsey & St. Amant, 2008, 2011; Ou, Pavlou, & Davison, 2014), facilitating new forms of connections and communication across space, place, and time for those who are forcibly displaced and relocated. In spite of a growing body of literature on the use of ICTs among refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced individuals (Frouws, Phillips, Hassan, & Twigt, 2016; Mancini, Sibilla, Argiropoulos, Rossi, & Everri, 2019), less is known about how refugee youths more specifically use social media or social networking sites in contexts of resettlement: to assist them at various stages of relocation in order to meet their everyday needs, access services, and participate in the new society.