Social Navigation and the Refugee Crisis: Traversing “Archipelagos” of Uncertainty

Melissa Wall

doi:10.17645/mac.v7i2.2279

Abstract

This reflection considers the thematic issue “Refugee Crises Disclosed: Intersections between Media, Communication and Forced Migration Processes” through the lens of social navigation which takes into account the fluidity and uncertainty of the refugee and forced migrant condition whether in flight, emplaced, or at a temporary stopping point. Refugees who are able to “read” their social environment will be more successful in developing practices to navigate through unpredictable migration processes, including responding to information uncertainty. Yet even as some of the displaced adapt, other actors—particularly those part of the refugee regime—are also operating in unstable conditions such that the actions of refugees/forced migrants may in turn keep the circumstances of those purporting to help also in flux.

Highlights

Issue This commentary is part of the issue “Refugee Crises Disclosed: Intersections between Media, Communication and Forced Migration Processes”, edited by Vasiliki Tsagkroni (Leiden University, The Netherlands) and Amanda Alencar (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands). This thematic issue on “Refugee Crises Disclosed” provides a window into the constellation of adaptive tactics enacted by refugees and forced migrants as they respond to both “radical and protracted uncertainty” (Horst & Grabska, 2015, p. 1)
The concept of social navigation “directs our attention to both the way people engage in the world and the way they move toward positions they perceive as being better than their current location” and is intended to capture the flows of actions across ever changing social environments (Vigh, 2009, p. 432)
A common thread in this special issue’s collection of studies is the documentation of the ways refugees and forced migrants engage in social navigation of displacement

Summary

Introduction

Issue This commentary is part of the issue “Refugee Crises Disclosed: Intersections between Media, Communication and Forced Migration Processes”, edited by Vasiliki Tsagkroni (Leiden University, The Netherlands) and Amanda Alencar (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands). This thematic issue on “Refugee Crises Disclosed” provides a window into the constellation of adaptive tactics enacted by refugees and forced migrants as they respond to both “radical and protracted uncertainty”

Results

Conclusion