Making research, good practices, learning activities and events on intercultural dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean accessible to everyone.

Publication
Media

Intimidade e Emoções num Centro de Acolhimento de Refugiados em Portugal

Author
Marta Lemos
Publisher
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Year of Publication
2021
Abstract

Refugees share universes that lead to the creation of practices and strategies for the success of their journey of escape and survival. According to Papadopoulos & Tsianos (2013), these everyday practices, defined as "mobile commons," can give rise to informal economies, crucial exchanges of information during travel, connectivity structures, and access to entities that promote their rights and a politics of mutual care. These acts are recreated and reconfigured to allow refugees to envision their mobility. In refugee reception centers, the digital space mediated by the smartphone is reconfigured not only to fit into the "mobile commons" but also to satisfy and express the affective-emotional and identity needs of the refugees. This space proves to be a stage for transgressing symbolic power, creating private and safe spaces where intimacies, emotions, and personal and identity issues are shared without significant risks, mitigating the feeling of loneliness in a hostile environment. The mobility reinvented by refugees highlights an emotional language of its own that allows the analysis of the meanings and strategies they imprint on their lives in mobility. In the context of global humanitarian emergencies, reception centers offer temporary refuge but are impersonal, hostile, and often overcrowded spaces. Living conditions in these centers highlight the need for digital tools such as smartphones, which become means of humanization, increasing the mobility of refugees and providing instruments for intimacy, emotional sharing, and ontological security. The constant use of the digital space allows refugees to create "virtual bubbles" that, while helping to cope with daily difficulties and isolation, can also contribute to the perpetuation of isolation situations. However, these conditions are closely linked to the reception and integration system and how it conceives the reception paths of refugees.

Countries/Region