EurekAlert: Social media postings linked to hate crimes. “A new paper in the Journal of the European Economic Association, published by Oxford University Press, explores the connection between social media and hate crimes. The researchers combined methods from applied microeconomics with text analysis tools to investigate how negative rhetoric about refugees on social media may have contributed to hate crimes against refugees in Germany between 2015 and 2017.”
refugees
COVID-19 ravaged meat plants: My refugee mother’s life is worth more than the bottom line (USA Today)
USA Today: COVID-19 ravaged meat plants: My refugee mother’s life is worth more than the bottom line. “The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited JBS last month for failing to protect its employees in Greeley, Colorado, from being exposed to COVID-19. The company’s negligence cost one corporate employee and six workers at the plant their lives, including my mom, Tin Aye. Another 290 workers have confirmed positive cases as of mid-September. JBS denies it did anything wrong, but my mother, who worked for JBS for 12 years, was almost certainly exposed to COVID-19 in the Greeley meat packing plant, where she worked long, hard hours to keep America’s grocery stores well-stocked, and an endless supply of meat available for summer grilling. It made me sick to hear OSHA only fined JBS $15,615, the maximum allowed. That’s less than $3,000 per death. My mom’s life is only worth $2,230?”
Gustavus Adolphus College: SSRC Grant Explores COVID-19’s Impact on Marginalized Communities
Gustavus Adolphus College: SSRC Grant Explores COVID-19’s Impact on Marginalized Communities. “A Minnesota-based research team led by Gustavus Adolphus College history professor Maddalena Marinari has been awarded a Rapid-Response Grant on COVID-19 and the Social Sciences by The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) to explore the impact of COVID-19 on African, Asian, and Latinx immigrant and refugee communities.”
UC Davis: Article 26 Backpack Humanitarian Tool Now Includes Expanded Languages, New Features
UC Davis: Article 26 Backpack Humanitarian Tool Now Includes Expanded Languages, New Features. “UC Davis recently released an updated version of Article 26 Backpack, a digital tool and ecosystem for refugees and other displaced peoples to safely and securely curate, store, and share critical academic and career development documents with universities, possible employers, and agencies.”
The Bookseller: Free ‘global voices’ anthology released to coincide with World Refugee Day
The Bookseller: Free ‘global voices’ anthology released to coincide with World Refugee Day. “Commissioned by Counterpoints Arts for Refugee week, the Imagine Anthology is a collaboration between Counterpoints Arts, publishing consultant Jessica Jackson, who edited the anthology, creative agency Visual Editions and Nina Jua Klein Studio. The anthology will be available as a free e-book on 15th June, ahead of World Refugee Day. Imagine features a compilation of non-fiction, flash fiction, poetry and essays written by writers such as Mohsin Hamid, Edmund de Waal, Dina Nayeri and Rupi Kaur.”
Harvard Gazette: Hikma Health’s new software allows patients to be screened for COVID-19 symptoms in refugee camps
Harvard Gazette: Hikma Health’s new software allows patients to be screened for COVID-19 symptoms in refugee camps. “When Senan Ebrahim was working in a Syrian refugee community in Jordan in 2017, he learned that one of doctors’ biggest needs was a way to collect and access patient health information. In 2018, the Ebrahim brothers founded Hikma Health, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that builds software for organizations providing health care to refugee populations.”
Pro Bono Australia: The project filling in the coronavirus language gap
Pro Bono Australia: The project filling in the coronavirus language gap. “There’s a lot of information out on how to keep safe from coronavirus, but if English isn’t your first language, it can be difficult to track down essential information. It’s an issue that Selena Choo is trying to fix. She has created Videos in Language: Coronavirus and Handwashing, a digital library of important coronavirus health information, videos, and tips, in 28 different Middle-Eastern, African and Asian languages.”
London Free Press: Coronavirus could cause upheaval across Middle East – Red Cross
London Free Press: Coronavirus could cause upheaval across Middle East – Red Cross. “Coronavirus outbreaks across the Middle East threaten to shatter the lives of millions of already destitute people in conflict zones, and could fuel socio-economic upheaval, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday. Curfews and lockdowns imposed as public health measures to stem spread of the virus are already making it difficult or impossible for many to provide for their families, it said.”
International Rescue Committee: IRC launches online platform for refugees and immigrants in the United States seeking to obtain medical accreditation and join the fight against Coronavirus
International Rescue Committee: IRC launches online platform for refugees and immigrants in the United States seeking to obtain medical accreditation and join the fight against Coronavirus. “The International Rescue Committee (IRC) announces today Refugees.Rescue.org an online platform and collaboration with partners that will help refugees and immigrants who are trained medical and health professionals but are not credentialed in the U.S. to join the fight against COVID-19. There are currently 165,000 underutilized health-care refugee and immigrant workers who likely obtained their health-related education outside the United States, according to research from the Migration Policy Institute.”
Sarajevo Times: Migrants in Reception Centres in Bosnia and Herzegovina are learning to cope with Disruption caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic
Sarajevo Times: Migrants in Reception Centres in Bosnia and Herzegovina are learning to cope with Disruption caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic. “Migrants and refugees hosted at UN-run reception centres in Bosnia-Herzegovina, are learning to cope with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘We fled from home to save our lives, to escape war, and now we are faced with this new coronavirus’, says Rozhan, Along with her husband, Ibrahim, and her three children, she made a long and arduous journey from Iraq, her home country, to Bosnia-Herzegovina in Europe, Relief Web reports.”
Fast Company: There’s now a chatbot to give refugees instant legal advice
Fast Company: There’s now a chatbot to give refugees instant legal advice. “For a Syrian refugee in Lebanon who is trying to navigate the legal path to resettlement, it can be difficult to find answers—and overstretched humanitarian organizations can take as long as three months to respond to an email when the demand for help is highest. A new chatbot called Mona, designed for Facebook Messenger and Telegram, can help more quickly.”
‘Like killing them again’: Syrians fear history lost as Twitter plans account purge (Middle East Eye)
Middle East Eye: ‘Like killing them again’: Syrians fear history lost as Twitter plans account purge. “The digital traces of the Syrian uprising, uploaded in real time as protests grew against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, are at risk of being deleted by social media companies, Syrian campaigners are warning. Last week Twitter said it will begin deleting accounts that have been inactive for more than six months, which will likely impact hundreds of accounts of those killed, detained or disappeared in the conflict, say founders of a Syria digital archive of the war.”
University of New Haven: Professor Strives to Use Music to Share the Culture of Refugees
University of New Haven: Professor Strives to Use Music to Share the Culture of Refugees. “Before joining the University of New Haven faculty in 2012, Erica Haskell, Ph.D. lived and worked in a refugee camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina. While in Europe, she also visited camps in Hungary, Serbia, and Romania, recording refugee stories and songs from around the world. She hopes to continue this work through the launch of the Schindler Refugee Music Project, which will share the experiences of refugees living in New Haven, by presenting their stories and the music of their home countries through podcasts.”
ProPublica: Google Says Google Translate Can’t Replace Human Translators. Immigration Officials Have Used It to Vet Refugees.
ProPublica: Google Says Google Translate Can’t Replace Human Translators. Immigration Officials Have Used It to Vet Refugees. . “Documents shared with ProPublica show that immigration officials have been told to vet refugees’ social media posts using Google Translate. Language experts caution even students against using the service.” I could do a whole big article on Google Translate being used inadvisably.
Business Insider: Twitter mysteriously suspended several accounts linked to women who say they are refugees fleeing abuse in Saudi Arabia
Business Insider: Twitter mysteriously suspended several accounts linked to women who say they are refugees fleeing abuse in Saudi Arabia. “Twitter has suspended accounts claiming to belong to two Saudi Arabian sisters who fled the country to seek asylum, as well as the account of an activist who was posting on their behalf.”