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Feb 25, 2025·Frontiers in Human Dynamics
13 cites
Blockchain-based solution for addressing refugee management in the Global South: transparent and accessible resource sharing in humanitarian organizations

Desale T. Abraha

NGOs can foster a more inclusive and effective civil society in the Global South by collaborating and amplifying marginalized voices. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) must prioritize establishing robust relationships with local communities and advocating for their needs to achieve a favorable outcome. As Sandri (2017) stated in his article, "Humanitarian aid to refugees in the Jungle refugee camp of Calais necessitates a diverse array of resources," including housing, food, healthcare, and education. This justifies the responsibility for humanitarian assistance. A later study estimates that around 117.2 million people will be displaced worldwide by 2024, mainly in countries at risk from climate change (UNHCR, 2023).As a result, the refugees' grievances are increasingly complex and unmanageable. Consequently, a thorough policy to allocate and maintain a just global responsibility will come into effect. By enabling peer-to-peer crowdfunding and ensuring secure digital storage of identity documents, blockchain technology can present creative options to assist marginalized individuals. However, it is essential to assess the ethical and logistical consequences of these technological advancements and protect the privacy and rights of refugees. Using blockchain technology, a secure digital identification system can be created that helps refugees overcome common Frontiers in Human Dynamics https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-dynamics identification obstacles. However, the blockchain system may need to be more effective for refugees in regions with limited access to technology or reliable internet connectivity, as this solution may need to be more practical for them. Also, certain refugees may need the necessary knowledge or resources to navigate and employ a sophisticated digital identification system efficiently. For instance, the absence of internet infrastructure may present a challenge for a refugee residing in a remote camp to access the blockchain system, impeding their ability to verify their identity and access essential services. Mballa et al. (2020) found that refugees residing in urban areas with improved connectivity and resources may find the blockchain system more accessible and advantageous for establishing secure identification. As he stated in his article, this system may encompass critical documents, such as diplomas, health records, and birth certificates, to facilitate the reconstruction of refugees' lives. Although the integration of important documents may be beneficial, it does not address the fundamental problem of internet connectivity and access in remote regions, which remains a significant obstacle to the implementation of a sophisticated digital identification system such as blockchain, as other scholars such as Ager and Stronger (2008) have noted. Problems with internet access might slow down the rollout of blockchain-based identification systems in more remote places. The research primarily centers on the traditional approach to refugee management while shedding light on future developments in refugee management systems, particularly regarding providing aid and assistance. It's important to consider that individuals in these areas may require assistance using such systems as they may have limited access to reliable connectivity.Moreover, relying heavily on online verification procedures can disproportionately affect marginalized communities with limited access to reliable internet services.Additionally, concerns about privacy and security may arise from storing sensitive personal information on a blockchain platform. Despite these challenges, blockchain-based identification systems have the potential to mitigate identity theft, streamline bureaucratic processes, and provide stability and security for displaced individuals. It is imperative to prioritize the needs of countries in the Global South and ensure they have the necessary resources to help those in need cope with the increasing number of refugees (Valenti, 2022). It is imperative to address the root causes of displacement and strive for sustainable solutions.According to Habib et al. (2023), a decentralized strategy focusing on openness and accessibility is a possible solution to the difficulties of sharing resources. This approach encourages stakeholder collaboration and strengthens the sense of community ownership of resources. Due to its immutability and security, blockchain technology can efficiently manage and distribute resources to refugees, as Corte-Real et al. (2022) found. By creating an immutable registry of funds allocated to refugees, aid can be distributed more efficiently and reliably. At the same time, direct peer-to-peer transactions minimize the need for intermediaries and reduce the risk of corruption and fraud (Nwuluu & Damisa, 2023). 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Open access
Migration, Health and Trauma
Migration, Refugees, and Integration
Sex work and related issues
Original source
Oct 23, 2023·Globalizations
28 cites
Blockchain-driven digital nomadism in the Basque e-Diaspora

Igor Calzada

E-diasporas are communities of diaspora members utilizing digital technologies and data platforms to establish connections among themselves and with their homelands.In response to the pandemic, governments worldwide have intensified efforts to reinforce e-diasporas.However, these endeavours often rely on social media extractivist Big Tech platforms, which are referred to as 'hyperconnected diasporas' in this article.This trend potentially poses a threat to institutional trust and data privacy.This article introduces HanHemen (ThereHere in Basque language, Euskera), an ongoing action research-driven e-diaspora platform facilitated by the Basque Government.HanHemen aims to ensure data privacy through experimentation with blockchain technologies and co-production with endusers via DAOs.This article reveals findings from an online survey completed by 419 Basque diasporic citizens (N = 1,385), who demonstrated support for digital nomadism (62%) and expressed concerns about data privacy (84%).These findings highlight the need to overcome the mainstream 'hyperconnected diaspora' trend through HanHemen.

Open access
Migration, Refugees, and Integration
Social Media and Politics
Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
Original source
Sep 6, 2023·Psychoanalytic, Psychosocial, and Human Rights Perspectives on Enforced Disappearance
0 cites
Fifty shades of suffering? The wavering international jurisprudence on relatives of disappeared persons as victims of human rights violations 1

G Citroni

Relatives of disappeared persons are recognized as victims of a violation in their own right, because of the anguish and stress caused by the enforced disappearance of their loved ones, the continuing uncertainty on their fate and whereabouts and the attitude of indifference shown by authorities in the face of their pain. Albeit the principle is relatively straight-forward, an analysis of international jurisprudence shows that significant discrepancies exist on rather major issues, beginning with who could validly claim the victim status. The answers given by international human rights mechanisms depend largely on the position taken on another crucial issue, i.e. the rationale to recognize specific persons or groups of persons as victims in the first place. The burden of proof applied weighs significantly on the subjects at stake. Lastly, for those who overcome all the procedural hurdles and are recognized as victims, what is the name given to the violation(s) endured? Moving from an analysis of the jurisprudence of the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights, as well as of the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, the chapter aims at illustrating the main existing discrepancies and their ramifications, including on the measures of reparation awarded.

Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Law
Migration, Refugees, and Integration
International Law and Human Rights
Original source
Mar 20, 2022·Geopolitics
60 cites
Digitisation and Sovereignty in Humanitarian Space: Technologies, Territories and Tensions

Aaron Martin, Gargi Sharma, Siddharth Peter de Souza, Linnet Taylor · 10 authors

Debates are ongoing on the limits of - and possibilities for - sovereignty in the digital era. While most observers spotlight the implications of the Internet, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence/machine learning and advanced data analytics for the sovereignty of nation states, a critical yet under examined question concerns what digital innovations mean for authority, power and control in the humanitarian sphere in which different rules, values and expectations are thought to apply. This forum brings together practitioners and scholars to explore both conceptually and empirically how digitisation and datafication in aid are (re)shaping notions of sovereign power in humanitarian space. The forum's contributors challenge established understandings of sovereignty in new forms of digital humanitarian action. Among other focus areas, the forum draws attention to how cyber dependencies threaten international humanitarian organisations' purported digital sovereignty. It also contests the potential of technologies like blockchain to revolutionise notions of sovereignty in humanitarian assistance and hypothesises about the ineluctable parasitic qualities of humanitarian technology. The forum concludes by proposing that digital technologies deployed in migration contexts might be understood as 'sovereignty experiments'. We invite readers from scholarly, policy and practitioner communities alike to engage closely with these critical perspectives on digitisation and sovereignty in humanitarian space.

Open access
Migration, Refugees, and Integration
Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics
Foucault, Power, and Ethics
Original source
Oct 4, 2020·Geopolitics
107 cites
Self-Sovereignty for Refugees? The Contested Horizons of Digital Identity

Margie Cheesman

This paper critically examines the implications of ‘self-sovereign identity’ (SSI) for border politics and migration management. SSI refers to user-controlled, decentralised forms of digital identification. Closely linked with the distributed ledger technology blockchain, SSI is presented by advocates as a tool to empower marginalised groups, including refugees. Among other benefits, some claim that SSI removes the need for powerful, centralised institutional structures by giving individuals control and ownership of their identity information. However, through ethnographic research in an international aid organisation, I find that SSI is an embryonic technology with indeterminate properties and benefits. I identify a series of competing logics in the debates around SSI’s emancipatory potential, which relate to four issues: (i) the neutrality of the technology, (ii) the capacities of refugees, (iii) global governance and the nation state, and (iv) new economic models for digital identity. SSI is simultaneously the potential enabler of new modes of empowerment, autonomy and data security for refugees and a means of maintaining and extending bureaucratic and commercial power. I situate SSI in a genealogy of systems of identity control and argue that, in practice, it is likely to feed into the powers of corporations and states over refugee populations.

Open access
Migration, Refugees, and Integration
European Criminal Justice and Data Protection
Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
Original source
Apr 1, 2010·Environment and Urbanization
17 cites
Embedding international migration: the response of Bolivian local governments and NGOs to international migration

Gery Nijenhuis

International migration is an integral part of the lives of many people in the South, and many households add remittances to their income in order to finance the daily costs of living that cannot be met by their traditional source of income. In the literature, a debate has emerged on the impacts of these remittances on development, focusing in particular on the micro level, namely the impact on households. Many studies also contend that national governments should try to redirect the impacts of remittances. However, the role of actors in local governance structures seems to be overlooked in this discussion. We argue that in the discussion on managing development through remittances, local governments and other stakeholders at the local level — such as NGOs — might also play a role, especially in those countries that have implemented decentralization. However, thus far, interventions aimed at leveraging remittance flows and facilitating migration processes are only in an initial phase. Our study of 12 municipalities in Bolivia shows that a lack of knowledge and capacities among local governments and NGOs is a decisive factor.

Open access
Migration and Labor Dynamics
Migration, Refugees, and Integration
Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
Original source
Oct 1, 1999·Anthropological Quarterly
70 cites
Finding a Moral Heart for U.S. Immigration Policy: An Anthropological Perspective

Susan Bibler Coutin, Josiah McC. Heyman

In this short but complex monograph Heyman uses his expertise as an ethnographer of both borderlands and border enforcers to devise moral and practical improvements in U.S. immigration policy. Heyman argues persuasively that current U.S. immigration policies are both unjust and unworkable. They are unjust, he contends, because they are fueled by antiimmigrationism, a sentiment that fails to recognize the common humanity of others. They are unworkable, he notes, because numerical controls have not prevented the influx of immigrants who are not authorized to live and work in the United States. Heyman reasons that as a member of a profession that is dedicated to analyzing the human condition, he is ethically obligated to promote policies that are both realistic and moral. Finding a moral heart for U.S. immigration policy is devoted to this endeavor. Heyman proposes that immigration to the United States be governed by compacts between the local communities where immigrants reside and employers or relatives who want to bring an immigrant into the country. Local communities would assess the improvements in housing, education, and public services that would be needed to accommodate new residents. Immigrant sponsors would then contribute to the costs of these improvements. According to this plan, immigration would be decentralized, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service would become a clearinghouse, illegality and law enforcement activities along U.S. borders would be reduced, immigrants could travel more freely, and all immigrants would be legal permanent residents entitled to live, work, receive public services, and even vote in local elections within the United States. There is much to commend about this proposal. Shifting the focus of the INS from enforcement to regulation would make crossings less hazardous, thus reducing death tolls along the U.S.-Mexico border. The current artificiality of the categories of kin who can sponsor immigrants would be replaced by a system that more realistically reflects individuals' actual relationships. Immigrants would be able to come and go legally, instead of being trapped within U.S. borders by a pending legalization case or by a fear of being apprehended upon reentry. According immigrants greater (indeed almost all) legal rights would reduce discrimination. I do, however, have some doubts about the proposal. For instance, migration from one part of the United States to another also adds new residents to local communities, and could potentially burden local services. Why then should employers only have to contribute to local infrastructure if they hire individuals from outside of the country? Also, if employers face extra costs for hiring immigrant workers, immigrant workers may face job discrimination. It seems more equitable to hold the federal government responsible for allocating resources to local communities based on their population sizes and demographics. Financing such allocations through across-the-board taxes instead of through compact costs charged to immigrant sponsors would further reduce distinctions between permanent residents and citizens. Heyman grounds his policy critique and proposal in what he characterizes as core anthropological values and the common characteristics of moral systems. …

Open access
Migration, Refugees, and Integration
Original source