Exploring Place-Belongingness through Magic Machine Workshops in Refugee Communities

Research Background and Issues

• Issues and Challenges: The paper highlights that refugees who are forcibly displaced and resettled often struggle to establish a sense of "home belonging" in their new environment. While the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has explored how technology can support refugees' physical and practical needs, there remains a lack of understanding regarding how technology can foster emotional and cultural belonging during long-term resettlement.
• Significance: Refugee resettlement requires not only meeting basic survival needs but also addressing deeper emotional and cultural issues to help refugees integrate into communities and restore psychological well-being.
• Research Motivation: To address the research gap concerning refugee belonging, particularly by exploring how the theoretical framework of "place-belongingness" can be applied in the context of forced migration, and by designing technological solutions to meet cultural and social needs.

Solution

• Proposed Approach: The authors employed a participatory design method through "Magic Machine" workshops, where refugees conceptualized technologies with magical functionalities. The focus of this approach was to uncover their needs rather than design implementable products.
• Innovation: The "Magic Machine" workshops fostered creativity, enabling participants to freely envision technological solutions beyond conventional and practical constraints. This method is particularly suitable for vulnerable communities, such as refugees, as it reveals their values and needs for belonging.
• Implementation Steps: (1) Recruit diverse refugee participants; (2) Collect participants' life stories and housing needs; (3) Guide participants to sketch ideal homes and technological concepts; (4) Conduct thematic analysis to summarize key findings.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Findings: The study identified several core themes affecting refugee belonging, including cultural identity and memory, life stability, privacy and security, social relationships, and access to resources and innovation.
• Comparative Advantages: Existing HCI research often focuses on functional designs (e.g., smart homes). This paper expands the emotional and cultural dimensions of technological design and provides practical insights into HCI research within refugee contexts.
• Experimental or Evaluation Results: The "Magic Machine" designs created by participants reflected critical needs such as cultural preservation, cross-border family communication, and stable living conditions. Examples include a 3D projector for interacting with distant relatives and small robots for eliminating safety hazards.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  • Limitations: The study used snowball sampling, which may have resulted in limited cultural diversity among participants. The short duration of the workshops made it difficult to capture long-term changes in belonging. Additionally, the focus on technology did not fully explore political and social institutional factors.
  • Future Directions: Future research should conduct long-term studies to explore the dynamic process of belonging over time. It is also recommended to investigate the political factors of refugee belonging and design more culturally sensitive technological solutions.

Conclusion

This paper extends the concept of "place-belongingness" to the context of forced migration through theoretical and practical applications, offering technological design recommendations tailored to refugees. These findings contribute to understanding and designing technologies that promote emotional and cultural belonging for refugees, supporting their long-term resettlement and psychological recovery. Future research should consider more diverse refugee backgrounds and track the development of belonging over time.