One device at a time — support for former refugees
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa (DIAA) Operations Director Laurence Zwimpfer says the Internet is now not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.
“This is now part of living in this society, being connected and having the confidence to use [the Internet]. Being digitally included is about having the motivation, access, skills and trust to take advantage of it.”
Laurence is a key player in Awhi Matihiko, a digital inclusion programme which aims to support newly-arrived, former refugees to get connected to the Internet.
Established in 2021, Awhi Matihiko sets up families with a year’s free Internet connection and a digital device they can use as they settle into their new lives in Aotearoa New Zealand.
It’s a collaboration between the Spark Foundation, New Zealand Red Cross, the Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa and InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa. In the last five years around 800 Chromebooks and 560 Skinny Jump modems have been distributed (and sometimes redistributed) to former refugees.
“There's no reason why the day they arrive, they can't be connected to the Internet,” says Laurence. “And that's been the feedback that we get from them, that that's one of the most valuable parts of it.”
Setting up for a new life
While the new arrivals are getting acclimatised at Te Āhuru Mōwai o Aotearoa, New Zealand’s refugee resettlement centre, regional Red Cross staff organise the digital set-up with Laurence.
Laurence ensures there’s a Skinny Jump modem and instructions, and a refurbished Chromebook, ready to be set up at their new home when they arrive. The Red Cross staff and volunteers are there to help when needed.
Laurence says there is a range of skill levels and confidence with technology among the new arrivals — some need help, but many are already confident digital users.
“Some do arrive with their smartphones — just because they’re refugees doesn’t mean to say they don’t have anything. Some of them are very digitally confident, some even teach this stuff in other countries,” says Laurence.
The Awhi Matihiko programme provides an immediate connection to New Zealand’s online systems and to family in other parts of the world, and it can help smooth the settlement process, he says.
“The biggest thing is maintaining that link back, back to their families to their home countries to say, hey, we're here… Language is often a barrier, an early barrier of stepping into a new society, but if they can still retain that connection to their roots, it sort of makes that process so much easier.”
A starting, not an end, point
Laurence is frank that the Chromebook and Skinny Jump Internet connection doesn’t necessarily meet the long-term needs of all former refugees, especially those with school-aged children. But it does help address one of the many challenges that new arrivals face when settling into a new country.
If he had his way, a device and an Internet connection would be part of the basic resettlement package for all adult refugees being welcomed to New Zealand, including appropriate devices for all school-aged children. This would mean that bigger families, often with disparate needs, didn’t have to share one device.
“Who in our society, our digitally connected society, would put up with a shared device? It just doesn't work like that anymore, does it? Like our whole lives are in our phone, our social connections, where we pay our bills, our calendars; you can't have that connected to multiple people. So when we welcome refugees to New Zealand and say, oh, by the way, this will help you, we've got to think of it very much as a starting point, not an end point.”
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