“What is the Topic of the Group, Please?” On Migration, Care and the Challenges of Participation in Design

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An increasing number of people around the world are forced to leave their homes due to the climate catastrophe, regional conflict and poverty. In their new host countries however, refugees and migrants are frequently met by a wide range of challenges, including wider societal participation. The difficulties migrants and refugees face have also increasingly become the topic of HCI and CSCW work. In this paper we report on a three year-long project, involving refugees, migrants and activist supporters in a co-design project to develop tools that aid the process of resettling. Several aspects have challenged equal participation in the project, including divergent motives, unequal power distribution and cultural heterogeneity. Despite these challenges the project outcomes are in use and maintained beyond the project runtime through voluntary actors. We reflect on this discrepancy between process and outcome drawing on the concept of care.