How technologists can help with the refugee crisis
It’s fascinating how the technology community believes in decentralized and distributed principles. Technologists have different incentives and more power to pursue their own principles -- this is what represents the core of technological innovation.
Capitalism folds all sorts of activities into the same incentive structure, collapsing the family restaurant owned decades-back with the private equity fund looking to outsource labor into the same, digestible story of cash flows and revenues. Notwithstanding the fact that big technology companies and venture capital (largely) subscribe to this same story, individual technologists have never had more power to pursue different incentives.
This rule it has led to the rise of Wikimedia, the largest distributed source of knowledge in the world. It’s what led to the rise of open-source projects on Github. It’s the founding principle behind the Linux Foundation. It’s how, independent of monetary incentives, you can truly be the change you want to see in the world as a technologist.
I have always had sympathy for refugees and economic migrants. I am a first-generation migrant myself. When we left China as a family, countries around the world were closing itself off to us after the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. This was the first time I realized that while people had become more forgiving of the sins of the father -- it was harder to be absolved of the sins of the state.
We got in due to the academic qualifications of my parents, but it was a circuitous route. It has made me aware of both my privilege and an obligation to help balance the weight of the sins of your state: the idea that where you are born determines so much of your life.
The current refugee crisis worldwide is one of the world’s largest. Historically, it is about as large as anything since the refugee waves that followed after World War II, except this time, the governing attitude towards those refugees has been more hostile. As nationalist parties with far-right elements gain influence and electoral seats in Europe, and the European Union’s individual countries pass the refugee buck, it can be easy (from a spectator point of view) to acknowledge a failing of human solidarity. Things become murkier when you get on the ground.
I took a trip to Athens to see what that might look like, and to look for ways technologists might be able to help with the refugee crisis. Here’s some initial insights I got from the experience.
1. Know what needs are like on the ground
One of the biggest takeaways I had from volunteering was that there wasn’t necessarily a lack of goodwill -- Elliniko Warehouse, the old basketball court for the 2004 Athens Olympics, was filled with pantry goods and donated clothes. However, there was a lot of potential when it came to the logistics of donations. There was potential to improve ensuring that donations got to where they were most needed, and also in the types of donations being sent. As it turned out to be the case, socks, especially soft, thick socks ready for winter were most in demand.
Technology can help a lot here if positioned in the right way: these are mostly communication problems. I saw a lot of paper solutions being passed by between different camps and the warehouse, which centralized supplies -- but couldn’t help and wonder if paper was inefficient and if the primary bottleneck (# of vans available to transport goods) could be alleviated by having more available data on these needs.
2. Get rid of misconceptions
One of the first misconceptions I discarded was the notion that all humanitarian aid is the same, so long as it comes with good intent. In fact, what I came to realize is that most of the aid being sent from far-off places (from America for example), might have been better off given as money spent locally rather than chewed up with delivery costs. This was something local aid officers kept on repeating.
You also quickly realize that refugee camps are being shuttered and moved to far-off, distant places once you start volunteering. The migrants that are left in populated areas tend to be from areas not recognized for asylum, from Northern Africa, to Pakistan. They are left homeless on the streets. This leads to some misapprehension on the part of local residents and may partially explain the rise of nationalist movements.
I volunteered for an organization called Refugees’ Refugethat gave out sandwiches and tea to migrants and homeless locals on the streets. It was an invaluable experience to humanize and give rich context to each individual and their struggles -- and it is an experience I would recommend to anybody.
Finally, you realize that the areas of highest need quickly shift from month-to-month, something that can’t be accurately reflected on the web. By the time I got there, rumblings that Lesbos was getting close to 200 refugees a day were crystallizing -- meanwhile, due to recent resettlements, refugee activities in Athens were winding down a bit.
3. Impact is largely a human-driven endeavor, but technology can help
Most of the problems on the ground are issues that can be solved by aggregating human efforts. From gathering up vans to having more hands to help with moving supplies, the problems on the ground are largely logistics-driven. Technology can help enable flows of people and information -- but it cannot replace, right now, the bulk of human effort needed for humanitarian aid.
4. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel in order to help
It can be tempting to view everything an older organization does as potentially antiquated and ripe for replacement or “disruption”, but processes evolve for a reason. They often have a rich context associated with them -- something hard to pierce at first glance. Elliniko Warehouse’s current needs have to do a lot with how it has shifted from being right next to a refugee camp to having those same refugees displaced to the north of Greece. Being aware of that context is as important as thinking of new solutions.
New solutions also come more seamlessly paired not only with context but with existing technological work. Fortunately, there are organizations on the ground that have already put in teams and projects into motion -- I learned of one called Campfire Innovation that has already put a lot of resources into social innovation.
5. It pays to know an issue deeply before really delving into it
The biggest takeaway I had with this trip was to really dive deeper into an issue before coming up with solutions. One of the wonderful things about technology is that it allows you to solve problems with minimal exposure to a domain -- witness the rise of weekend hackathons.
Getting technologists together to pattern-match and solve problems inherent in many old processes without the need for deep domain knowledge allows technologists the latitude to make an impact across many fields -- but it may lead to shallow or trite solutions, unmaintained a week after.
Perhaps it’s better to really invest and investigate problems that you are most passionate about rather than aggregating impact across many issues. I couldn’t help think that.
6. You can start at home
While I traveled to explore the refugee crisis and its causes, you don’t have to. Another wonderful thing about technology is how it empowers distributed effort and makes location irrelevant to impact. You can contribute to organizations like Campfire Innovation remotely or even volunteer with refugee integration with local organizations: in the Bay Area, there are organizations such as Upwardly Global and Tech SF doing great work in the space.
These were my initial thoughts on an issue dear to my heart, the refugee crisis. I don’t think I’ve scratched the surface of the problems in the area and of the solutions that can be brought to bear. If nothing else, I want to emphasize that in order to be the change you want to see in the world, you have to venture, explore, and dig deeper. I know I will. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments!