Information and Communication Technologies and Decision-Making among Forcibly Displaced People: Empirical Analysis from Kenya

This paper explores how the use and access to information communication technologies (ICTs) shapes and influences the mobility and integration decisions of forcibly displaced people in Kenya. It pursues this question in three ways: 1) How do forcibly displaced people report using ICTs during their journeys, 2) what role did/do ICTs play in helping them economically and socially integrate upon arrival, and 3) how these self-reported behaviors align with how institutions such as UNHCR design digital interventions. These three lines of inquiry shed light on micro-level uses and decision making, as well as understanding how individual and institutional conceptions of ICT use align with each other. Using new interview and survey data from three sites in Kenya, the project will help researchers and policy makers understand how the access and use of digital technology influences migrants' and refugees' mobility and economic decisions and indicate new directions for the practical use of ICTs in supporting livelihoods for forcibly displaced people.