Digital Exiles

A deep exploration of the opportunities and risks a global digital economy poses for refugees. Digital Exiles opens a rare window into the world of refugees trying to survive and thrive in an increasingly digitalized and technological world of work. Often excluded from local employment and struggling to make ends meet, refugees are increasingly dependent on digital jobs and online work as a financial lifeline. Andreas Hackl offers a human-centered and global perspective to these struggles through his research into three of the most important refugee-hosting countries- Lebanon, Kenya, and Germany. The pursuit of a digital livelihood-from attending coding schools in Berlin to training datasets for AI in crisis-stricken Lebanon to online freelancing in Kenya's refugee camps-represents an increasingly important income opportunity for refugees. Digital work programs by aid organizations and the private sector aim to help the forcibly displaced become self-reliant and successful workers, yet, for many, it creates new forms of exclusion, precarity, and risk. Combining human stories with insights from five years of multisited research and applied work with leading organizations, the author presents an alternative vision of an inclusive world of work that can help shape the fair digital economy of the future.

About the Author :
Andreas Hackl is a Social Anthropologist at the University of Edinburgh, specializing in international development, migration, and the digital economy. He is the author of The Invisible Palestinians.

Review :
ENDORSEMENTS

“A powerful and empirically grounded intervention, Digital Exiles exposes structural barriers while pointing to humane pathways for improving refugee livelihoods in the digital age.”
—Mark Graham, Professor, University of Oxford; coauthor of Feeding the Machine

“A compelling and important exploration of how refugees engage in digital work—and the nuanced barriers that are easily overlooked. Relevant, insightful, and deeply needed.”
—Liz Vickers, Human Empowerment Coach, World of Work Expert, senior operations strategist

“A must-read for anyone who wants to gain an in-depth understanding of the industry of digital refugee livelihoods beyond the hype and meet the workers powering the global digital economy from the margins.”
—Iva Gumnishka, Founder, Humans in the Loop

“Digital Exiles offers a necessary antidote to the optimism surrounding digital work opportunities for refugees. Based on extensive, comparative research with refugees in Lebanon, Kenya and Germany, the book offers a rigorous and balanced account of digital livelihood programs and gig work and shows how they heighten precarity for some of the world's most marginalized people.”—Mirca Madianou, Professor, University of London, author of Telecolonialism