In this study, we examine refugees' use of mobile communication and Internet services. Our findings are based on survey data collected at Za'atari Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, providing systematic quantitative analyses to complement anecdotal accounts reported in the media. More importantly, our findings directly inform humanitarian program development and may be used to develop related information services. First, in terms of frequency of use, we find that social media are used more frequently than SMS, mobile voice, Skype and email. Second, through multivariate regression with demographic variables, we find that sex is a significant predictor of the type of communication service, which differs depending on recipient location. Third, we identified the three most popular information sources are Google, Facebook and YouTube Lastly, we discuss how these findings, in particular, highlighting the heterogeneity of refugee ICT use and online interests, can inform information service design.
['Ying Xu', 'Carleen F. Maitland']
Communication Behaviors When Displaced: A Case Study of Za'atari Syrian Refugee Camp