Role of Social Media and Computing in Organizations aiding Asylum Seekers and Undocumented Migrants in the United States

Every year, an increasing number of displaced people arrive at the United States of America's border to request asylum. Several groups are working to help migrants by providing them with essential items and services, housing, and legal advice. Drawing on ethnographic findings, this work presents a situated perspective of how citizen responders utilize technological systems to provide relief to those affected by the immigration crisis. Often, these citizens with common goals come together to form organizations. This study investigates how social media and technology support on-the-ground work, advocacy work, care-work, and invisible work of these organizations. Further, I highlight how technological systems fail organizations and how the emergence of care-work replaced these systems. Finally, I make design recommendations to social media and technological systems' design to boost the efficacy of collective crisis response by citizens.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science and Applications

Department dc:contributor.department

Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Rama Subramanian, Deepika

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Mitra, Tanushree

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Esakia, Andria
• Hester, Rebecca

• Social Media
• Fundraising
• Narrative Empathy
• Storytelling
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Grassroots Organizations
• Asylum-Seekers
• Migrants
• Immigrants

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:27147

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/99900