Report: Digital inclusion user insights — Former refugees and migrants with English as a second language

1. Introduction

Digital inclusion can be defined as an end-state where everyone has equitable opportunities to participate in society using digital technologies (Digital Inclusion Research Group, 2017).

This user experience (UX) report for former refugees and marginalised migrants is part of the digital inclusion user insights report series commissioned by Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs (DIA). The purpose of the series is to understand the lived experience of the most often digitally excluded groups.

Acknowledgement

DIA extends its warmest thank you to everyone who shared their stories and participated in this UX research project. The Digital Inclusion team also would like to acknowledge the Ministry for Ethnic Communities for working with the researcher to engage with communities including local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to organise the interviews and to provide guidance and feedback.

DIA would like to note that the information and findings featured in this report reflect the views of the individuals who were interviewed and the various groups that they represent.

Report information

Prepared for Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs and the Ministry for Ethnic Communities.

Prepared by Jas Hua.

Date: 30 November 2021

Citation

Hua, J. (2021, November). ‘Digital inclusion user insights — Former refugees and migrants with English as a second language.’ Department of Internal Affairs. https://www.digital.govt.nz/dmsdocument/196~digital-inclusion-user-insights-former-refugees-and-migrants-with-english-as-a-second-language/html

2. Executive summary

This user experience (UX) report for former refugees and marginalised migrants is part of the digital inclusion user insight report series commissioned by the New Zealand government’s Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).

The purpose of the series to understand the lived experience of the most often digitally excluded groups. This report focuses on the group of former refugees and marginalised migrants with English as a second language.

Access and skills are the 2 main barriers to digital inclusion for former refugees and marginalised migrants. A lower English language proficiency, cultural barriers and low socio-economic status are other factors forming impediments to digital inclusion for this group.

Cost is the main barrier for this group to have access to larger devices such as desktops, laptops, mobile data and plans, and unlimited home internet.

Access to key online government and non-government services is limited due to an English language barrier, lack of resources in ethnic languages, low digital skills, and unfamiliarity with how online systems work. This is one of the key themes identified when reviewing local and international literature.

Although there is not much progress in the digital inclusion position for the majority of research participants when comparing the first 3 months and first 3 years of settlement period, there is a sense of improvement of digital inclusion for those that settle in NZ for a longer time — for example, more than 10 years. This creates an opportunity to accelerate this group’s digital inclusion journey by addressing the access and skills elements early on in their settlement journey.

Social networks such as volunteers, settlement workers, community and family members are the most trusted source, followed by official government channels and websites. Therefore, these networks should be further utilised, and channels and websites should be designed inclusively to help improve this group’s digital inclusion.

More importantly, most of this group has the motivation and trust to take advantage of the social and economic benefits created by digital technologies if there are opportunities and conditions created for them to do so.

I’m coming from overseas, you teach me English, and I learn this language, and I work here, I pay tax, I help the government. So I’m not going to be useless, I will be useful.

When you teach me math plus English, I will be more useful. I can do something greater than ever.

When you teach me computers, so I’ve got the basics of IT, English and math. I will be an expert in the future and I will help New Zealand to grow faster and faster.

3. Key findings

This user experience (UX) report is part of DIA’s wider research to understand the lived experience of the most often digitally excluded groups.

Former refugees and marginalised migrants are also one of the target groups that received less support from government initiatives compared with others, as reported in the government’s report on target demographics. Read section 2 of the report: Digital inclusion stocktake: What digital inclusion looks like across government.

The research sets out to:

• identify barriers, challenges and pain points of former refugees and marginalised migrants’ digital inclusion journey
• understand how digitally included this group is on the digital inclusion framework.

The research takes into account this group’s settlement experience in Aotearoa New Zealand at these time periods — the first 3 months and first 3 years.

The research was conducted from April to June 2021 in 6 locations across New Zealand. In total, there were 41 participants representing 20 ethnicities. In-depth interviews with participants were in the form of one on one and face to face. There was support from in-person or phone interpreters when required.

3.1. Summary of literature review

Five databases were searched for existing literature on digital inclusion for former refugees and migrants with English as a second language (ESL) in New Zealand and other countries around the world. Initial filtering on the abstracts produced 36 records. From there, each record was reviewed to determine the relevancy to the research scope.

The insights were also used to inform the research plan.

Differences in definitions and experiences between ‘refugees’ and ‘migrants’

There are clear legal distinctions between refugees and migrants, which was acknowledged by the United Nations General Assembly in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (UN General Assembly, 2016) and United Nations High Commission Refugees (UNHCR).

Refugees and migrants go through different experiences when they arrive in a new country. In New Zealand, these groups receive different settlement support provided by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) in partnership with other government agencies and third-party providers.

Suggestive similarities between ‘refugees’ and ‘marginalised migrants’

A group of migrants exist who face challenges similar to those faced by former refugees during their settlement journey. These include social, economic, cultural and political challenges. This group is described as ‘marginalised migrants’ by Belong Aotearoa and other NGOs in New Zealand. (Belong Aotearoa, UMMA Trust, RASNZ, NZ Red Cross, Asylum Seekers Support Trust, Aotearoa Resettled Community Coalition, Family Action, 2020).

In conclusion, there is a high level of commonality between former refugees and marginalised migrants needing to access support services for their settlement. There is less commonality between former refugees and other groups of migrants, such as skilled migrants. In this research, former refugees and marginalised migrants are the main focus.

Key themes identified from the literature review

• There are barriers to using online information from official sources by recently arrived refugees and migrants.
• Digital technologies enable refugees and migrants to meet one of their key needs — affordable communication with their social networks. However, barriers still exist to using digital tools to their advantage.
• Digitally included people achieve better social inclusion and wellbeing.

Identified in the literature review, these 3 key themes help to partially answer questions in the Digital Inclusion Research Agenda as well as inform the scope of this research.

Barriers to digital inclusion for former refugees and migrants are compounded by other factors including social, cultural, economic and political challenges that arise when settling in their new host country.

It’s hypothesised that enhancing the digital inclusion elements — motivation, access, skills and trust (MAST) — will improve this group’s digital inclusion and therefore factors associated with their settlement journey.

3.2. Summary of research findings

Some former refugees and marginalised migrants have no prior experience of using digital devices, the internet or online services before coming to NZ. This creates gaps in their knowledge about what is possible to achieve with digital technologies.

A hierarchy of needs takes priority, and mental availability to learn is scarce. For those who understand the social and economic benefits of digital technologies, these benefits are not realised because of a lack of access to relevant devices and skills. Connecting with families and friends overseas is the biggest motivation and the most frequent usage of smartphones for this group.

It took me a really long time, even though like friends or classmates where I used to study with, they already got the smartphones and they started to pop up. I didn’t have a smartphone straight away. But then again, I didn’t realise that was a challenge, because I didn’t know what a smartphone could do. And I was quite used to my lifestyle until my phone broke. And then I had to get a new one. And we ended up getting a smartphone for my mom and for myself. It took me 3 years.

Access

Cost is the main barrier for this group to have access to larger devices such as desktops, laptops, mobile data and plans, and unlimited home internet. Connectivity to free public wifi is reported to be inconsistent, of low speed or time-bound, or all of the above.

For accessing government services, visiting in person is still seen as a more effective way to get important things done and to resolve issues and questions.

In the first 3 months, in-person appointments or phone calls with interpretation services are the preferred modes of service access. Support of social networks such as volunteers, settlement workers, family members or community members is key for this group to access the internet, devices and essential services whether online or offline.

Self-service online access is not possible due to an English language barrier, lack of resources in ethnic languages, limited digital skills, and unfamiliarity with how online systems work. This trend remains mostly unchanged for the first 3 years of settlement in NZ for the majority of this group.

For those who have the willingness to use online self-service, it’s time consuming because they need to use online translation tools to help them understand the content and applications. Despite those efforts, help is still needed with questions, requirements and technical terms.

We didn’t know anything about New Zealand before we came. Basically, just before we came to New Zealand, we were given a little bit of information about New Zealand. Honestly speaking, we don’t know where New Zealand is. When I arrived here at the resettlement agency, they provide me [a] volunteer support worker, she pretty much did everything for me, like how to go shopping, how to use your bank card, how to go to Work and Income, or how to go to school, how to take [the] bus or everything is what this support worker helps me and to guide me and lead me and support me to settle in a new community.

Skills

There is evidence that digital skills training provided in an ethnic language facilitates the process of acquiring digital skills independent of English language proficiency. However, there needs to be a clear separation in digital skill levels, so that the training can be effective. Trusted communities are best placed as intermediaries to help transfer knowledge, provide support and facilitate digital skills training.

The top 3 most important areas of digital skills for this group are:

1. 1. online transaction skills
2. 2. online safety and security skills
3. 3. skills to handle online information and content.

The top 5 specific digital skills that this group wants to improve on are:

1. 1. storing information in the cloud and accessing that content from different devices
2. 2. updating devices regularly to prevent viruses and other risks
3. 3. managing their money and transactions online securely
4. 4. accessing and using public services online, for example, vehicle registration, MyMSD
5. 5. paying for goods or services online.

A lack of English language proficiency is a significant barrier to acquiring digital skills as most training offered is provided in English.

Free class is very important for adults because I mean for adults, even though we have a computer, most people cannot open [it] up, don’t know how to use it, so this kind of computer course is very important for them. But the second problem is this course gives a lesson by English. There’s another big problem.

So if we have someone who can teach in our language, this will be very appreciated. Because now, technology is everywhere. So at that point, everyone needs to understand at least the basic course. And as we said, the government or a lot of organisations offer these free courses, but it is still difficult for us. Because we don’t know, most people don’t know English. Computer terms are more difficult to understand.

Low self-confidence and priority of meeting basic living needs affect the ongoing attendance of training classes.

Women in this group are at greater risk of digital exclusion due to lower levels of digital skills and lack of opportunities and support to attend training classes mainly because of domestic care-giving duties, followed by injuries and illnesses.

Trust

The fear of personal information — including credit card and bank account details — being tracked, trapped and collected for unrelated purposes is the biggest source of distrust. This creates barriers to conducting online activities such as online shopping, online banking and online payments for key services.

The most worrying thing and most untrusted thing that I don’t like is identity theft and you know, for your information, be cautious because you don’t know if these people are going to take it and you’re not sure if you did the right thing when you fill out that form.

Previous first- or second-hand experiences of cybercrimes such as online frauds, scams and hacks also lowers trust in the digital world.

Social networks are the most trusted, followed by government websites, channels and well-known brands of banks, telecommunications and news outlets. Social influence is also an important factor facilitating digital technologies adoption.

3.3. Other factors that affect this group’s digital inclusion

Besides the 4 elements in the digital inclusion framework, there are other factors that affect digital inclusion of this group.

Lack of English language proficiency and awareness of service availability

Lack of English language proficiency and resources in ethnic languages are long-term barriers to digital inclusion for this group.

This is exacerbated by a lack of awareness or understanding of how things work in NZ, and what government information and services are available, especially for those who are not eligible to go through government resettlement programmes.

I mean, compared to the technology available now, everything was very difficult. But back then, because I was not totally aware of what the key services are, because you’re not totally aware of what you don’t have at the time, so you kind of just make do with what you have and not even think ‘oh this is difficult’, you just do it.

Cultural barriers

Cultural characteristics need to be considered when raising awareness or delivering government services, or doing both — especially if it’s online. Some cultures consider it shameful to ask questions or for help. Some people do not want to come across as troublesome to others. This leads to a lack of feedback to service providers, especially when the services are not well-delivered online or offline — for example, by phone or at a service centre.

Like asking questions for help or something like that ... because the culture is kind of a bit of a shame to ask: can you help me? [In hindsight] I would do it differently, I would ask even if I didn’t understand.

Socio-economic status

Lower socio-economic status forms another barrier to digital inclusion of this group, specifically in accessing digital devices, mobile data and plans, and unlimited home internet. This affects the motivation, access and skills elements in the MAST framework because it takes time to improve socio-economic conditions.

Education attainment

Higher education seems to be associated with a higher level of digital inclusion especially in the skills element. This is observed in former refugees who pursued or are pursuing higher education in NZ and in some migrants with higher education backgrounds.

3.4. Digital inclusion and wellbeing

Access to social services

Digital inclusion partially influences this group’s access to social services in the longer term, especially with the move to more online self-service. For this group, the difference in social services access and the modes of access between their previous country and NZ is reflected.

This is compounded by lacking previous experience accessing the internet and digital devices, and lower English language proficiency for the majority of former refugees and migrants. This makes accessing online social services challenging. In their first 3 months in NZ, the support of volunteers, settlement workers, family, friends and community members is key to accessing essential services. The preferred modes of access are in-person appointments and phone calls. This trend remains unchanged for the first 3 years.

Social connection and subjective wellbeing

The affordability of smartphones, aided by relatively stable internet connection in NZ, such as wifi at home, creates an economical and consistent way for this group to be in contact with their families. Therefore, digital inclusion enables this group to maintain family and social connections overseas that would otherwise be impossible. This directly benefits their wellbeing by reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation, especially for the newly arrived.

When internet connections are disrupted, there is a negative effect on their subjective wellbeing if this group loses contact with their overseas families about their situation. A disruption in NZ may be due to a data cap being reached or an internet outage. In their original country, network infrastructure or connectivity may be disrupted by socio-political events or high internet costs.

I have my parents, my brother and 2 sisters back at home as well. Unfortunately, they are not in a good situation because there is an ongoing war in that region. It’s stressful to think about. It’s very hard because the network keeps going down. So I do call them just directly. I use a different application to call them, because the normal services wouldn’t work or connect me. Yeah, so I just installed the app. We charge it and call them directly if that works. And it’s currently not working.

3.5. Conclusion and recommendations

For the majority of this group, there is not much progress in their digital inclusion when comparing the first 3 months and first 3 years of settlement periods. However, there is a sense of improvement of digital inclusion for those who settle in NZ for a longer time — for example, more than 10 years.

This creates an opportunity to accelerate this group’s digital inclusion journey by addressing the access and skills elements early on in their settlement journey.

Social networks such as volunteers, settlement workers, community and family members are the most trusted sources, followed by official government channels and websites. Therefore, these networks should be further utilised, and channels and websites should be designed inclusively to help improve this group’s digital inclusion.

The following recommendations are based on research findings, not government policy recommendations.

Opportunities to solve the access issues

To help solve the access issues, measures that would help include providing:

• devices such as laptops through different finance options and internet connections where it has been evaluated as an effective approach. (The Ministry of Education’s Equitable Digital Access programme is an example of a successful approach.)
• zero-rated data to access key online services including essential governmental and non-governmental services
• community spaces such as public libraries and places of worship where digital skills training and device stations can be accessed.

Opportunities to solve the skills issues

To help solve the skills issues, measures that would help include providing:

• digital skills training in ethnic languages through trusted intermediaries to reduce the time this group stays digitally excluded
• targeted and holistic support for women in ethnic communities, especially around domestic care-giving duties so they can attend training classes
• digital skills training with clear achievement levels so that it’s effective and empowering, for example, smartphone-specific digital skills training as a starting point before progressing to more complex digital skills training on larger devices such as laptops
• focused training on the top 3 digital skills areas identified as important for this group: online transaction skills, online safety and security skills, and skills to handle online information and content. This should include training on accessing key online services such as MyMSD, myIR, an online immigration account, and online banking.

Other considerations

To help increase the digital inclusion of former refugees and marginalised migrants settling in NZ, consider:

• continuing to prioritise English language proficiency training
• making resources available in ethnic languages online, especially for key services
• making digital inclusion training part of the resettlement programme for former refugees and marginalised migrants with ESL
• more investment in increasing digital inclusion support for the first 3 to 5 years of settlement
• using longitudinal studies to understand the impact of early digital inclusion support on settlement outcomes
• measuring and tracking the digital inclusion position of this group in the context of their settlement and settlement outcomes in NZ.

4. Research

4.1. Background

Digital inclusion can be defined as an end-state where everyone has equitable opportunities to participate in society using digital technologies (Digital Inclusion Research Group, 2017).

This user experience (UX) report for former refugees and marginalised migrants is part of the digital inclusion user insights report series commissioned by DIA. The purpose of the series is to understand the lived experience of the most often digitally excluded groups.

Former refugees and migrants with English as a second language were identified as one of the most often digitally excluded groups (Digital Inclusion Research Group, 2017). They are also one of the target groups that received less support from government initiatives compared with others as reported in the government’s report on target demographics.

Read section 2 of the report: Digital inclusion stocktake: What digital inclusion looks like across government.

This research sets out to:

• identify barriers, challenges and pain points of former refugees and marginalised migrants’ digital inclusion journey
• understand how digitally included this group is on the digital inclusion framework.

The research takes into account this group’s settlement experience in Aotearoa New Zealand at these time periods — the first 3 months and first 3 years.

The research was conducted in 6 locations across New Zealand from April to June 2021, with 41 participants representing 20 ethnicities. It set out to answer key questions from the Digital Inclusion Research Agenda.

Digital Inclusion Research Agenda

4.2. Research questions

4.2.1. Digital Inclusion Research Agenda

The Digital Inclusion Research Agenda (the agenda) was developed across government agencies, NZ organisations, and researchers in 2019 to guide the government’s digital inclusion research priorities. This UX research fits within the agenda as qualitative research and helps to answer questions 1b and 1c in detail and question 2b in part.

Questions in Digital Inclusion Research Agenda

The following questions were used from the agenda:

• 1b — Which elements of digital inclusion (motivation, access, skills or trust) are lacking for the groups that have a lower likelihood of being digitally included?
• 1c — What are the barriers to, and enablers of, digital inclusion for people in these groups?
• 2b — How does digital inclusion relate to waiora wellbeing?

4.2.2. Research questions for this study

Current literature tends to focus on understanding the usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by refugees and migrants. The research reviewed in the literature is very localised.

However, there is not enough research on the use of digital technologies by refugees and migrants at specific points in their settlement journeys to help understand the factors that hinder as well as facilitate digital inclusion levels and progression of these groups.

This research sets out to:

• identify barriers, challenges and pain points of former refugees and marginalised migrants’ digital inclusion journey
• understand how digitally included this group is on the digital inclusion framework.

The research takes into account this group’s settlement experience in Aotearoa New Zealand at these time periods — the first 3 months and first 3 years.

List of research questions and sub-questions

Question 1:

What is their current state of digital inclusion?

Sub-questions:

• Are they using any digital devices? What are they? And what for?
• Do they have an internet connection? How?
• If key services were to move online, how did that affect them? Why?
• Anything makes it difficult for them to access online key services? What support do they have?
• What do they like and not like about doing things digitally? Why?
• How much do they trust the things that they do online? Why?

Question 2:

When they arrived in NZ in the first 3 months, what was their state of digital inclusion?

Sub-questions:

• Did they have access to the internet? How?
• Did they have access to digital devices? If yes, what are they?
• What did they use the device for?
• What support did they have to use the device to finish the tasks?
• If they didn’t have a device, how did they access the services they needed? What were those services?
• What support did they have in that regard?
• What were their preferred ways to access key services and why?

Question 3:

During their first 3 years in NZ, what were the barriers, challenges and pain points that they encountered using digital technologies while settling in NZ? How did their digital inclusion position change?

Sub-questions:

• What did they use the device for the first 3 years?
• What support did they have to use the device to finish the tasks?
• What were their preferred ways to access key services and why? What were those services?
• How did internet access, device access and usage change compared to their first 3 months?

Question 4:

What could have been done better to help them use digital technologies?

Sub-questions:

• What would enable them to be more digitally included? (Motivation, trust, skills and access.)
• What got in the way? What didn’t work? Why?

4.3. Definitions and framework

4.3.1. Digital inclusion framework

This research drew on the vision of digital inclusion set out in the Digital Inclusion Blueprint, Te Mahere mō te Whakaurunga Matihiko (the Blueprint), and its definition of the 4 elements of digital inclusion.

The vision for digital inclusion

The vision is that everyone has what they need to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from the digital world.

The 4 elements of digital inclusion

There are 4 interdependent elements, which are all needed for a person to be digitally included. They are motivation, access, skills, and trust.

1. Motivation — Understanding how the internet and digital technology can help us connect, learn, or access opportunities, and consequently have a meaningful reason to engage with the digital world.
2. Access — Having access to digital devices, services, software, and content that meet our needs at a cost we can afford; and being able to connect to the internet where you work, live and play. Access is a broad element, which can be broken into 3 key parts: connectivity, affordability and accessibility.
3. Skills — Having the know-how to use the internet and digital technology in ways that are appropriate and beneficial for each of us.
4. Trust — Trusting in the internet and online services — having the digital literacy to manage personal information, and to understand and avoid scams, harmful communication and misleading information. This element also touches on online safety, digital understanding, confidence and resilience.

The vision and elements of digital inclusion provide a framework for understanding digital inclusion in the NZ context and for discussing the challenges faced by different groups in New Zealand. They were also used to design this research.

4.3.2. Definitions of ‘refugees’ and ‘migrants’

There are clear legal distinctions between refugees and migrants, which was acknowledged by the United Nations General Assembly in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (UN General Assembly, 2016).

While the United Nations High Commission Refugees (UNHCR) sets out a very clear definition for refugees, there is no uniform international definition for migrants. Therefore, both terms — refugees and migrants — should be used, and not combined into one group. See section 5.2. for a detailed explanation of the differences.

5. Research – methodology

5.1. Methods

5.1.1. Literature review

A literature review was conducted to gather existing insights into refugees and migrants in the digital inclusion space from local and international publications.

Five databases were searched for existing literature on digital inclusion for former refugees and migrants with English as a second language (ESL) in New Zealand and other countries around the world. Initial filtering on the abstracts produced 36 records. From there, each record was reviewed to determine the relevancy to the research scope.

These insights were also used to inform the research plan (see section 6. Literature review for themes identified from the literature review, see appendix 13.3. for keywords and databases used.)

5.1.2. User experience (UX) research

User research or user experience (UX) research to is a method used to better comprehend the lived experience of this group.

It takes a qualitative approach to understanding user behaviours, needs, goals, motivations, barriers, pain points and any contextual information that might explain why they do what they do. User experience researchers systematically gather in-depth insights into people’s needs, building up a context within which the design process can take place.

This research was conducted in the form of in-depth interviews, one on one and face to face. The interviews were semi-structured and supported by in-person or phone interpreters when required. The interviews are guided by a set of questions and activities.

5.2. Participants

5.2.1. Categories

The participants are made up of 2 categories: former refugees and migrants. Each category has further sub-groups identified as below.

Former refugees

Former refugees were selected from the following 3 sub-groups.

Quota refugees

Quota refugees — also known as mandated refugees — are people determined to be refugees by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) before arrival in New Zealand (Immigration New Zealand, 2021, 1). This is the biggest group of refugees compared to the groups below. The quota was increased to 1500 persons per year from July 2020.

Family support refugees

Family support refugees are family members sponsored by former refugee residents in NZ as they do not qualify for residence under any other category of residence instructions (Immigration New Zealand, 2021, 2). This is the second-biggest group. The quota is set at 300 per year.

Convention refugees

The Convention refugees sub-group are given refugee status by the New Zealand government under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (Immigration New Zealand, 2021, 1). They are granted Refugee and Protected Persons Status. This is the smallest group.

Migrants

Migrants were selected from these 4 sub-groups. (Skilled migrants are not in the scope of the research).

Migrants with work visa — humanitarian sub-stream

The Migrants with work visa — humanitarian sub-stream are people who were granted work visas with one of these sub-criteria: asylum seeker (Immigration New Zealand, 2021, 3), victims of domestic violence (Immigration New Zealand, 2021, 4), victims of people trafficking (Immigration New Zealand, 2021, 5) and reconsideration.

Migrants with work visa — relationship sub-stream

The Migrants with work visa — relationship sub-stream are people who were granted work visas based on partnership criteria: de facto, fiancé(e), or spouse of an NZ citizen, resident, worker or student.

Migrants with residence visa — relationship sub-stream

The Migrants with residence visa — relationship sub-stream are people who were granted residence visas based on the partnership criteria.

Migrants with residence visa — parent sub-stream

The Migrants with residence visa — parent sub-stream are people who were granted residence visas based on parent criteria.

5.2.2. Selection

The size of each sub-group was determined based on the proportional ratio of average numbers of each group in NZ over the last 10 years using publicly available data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), accessed in March 2021. Where the ratio of any group is less than 5, a minimum of 5 is used based on the standard UX rule.

The recruitment criteria were based on the immigration pathway according to each sub-group, and relatively equal distribution of these variables:

• time since arrival in NZ
• age group
• gender
• qualifications
• employment status.

English as a second language is a criterion applied for all sub-groups.

Some minor adjustments were made to the participant groups during the recruitment phase due to time frame constraints.

Participants were recruited through the Ministry for Ethnic Communities’ regional advisors who work with their respective communities including NGOs throughout NZ.

5.2.3. Size

In total, there were 41 participants involved in this research — 14 participants being migrants and 27 former refugees. There are no migrants from the humanitarian sub-stream and 2 migrants in the parent category.

5.3. Demographics

The following is the breakdown of the research participants’ demographics. There is a relatively equal distribution of time since arrival in NZ, qualifications and employment status.

There is a skew towards the 40 to 49 age group with a slight skew towards females. Immigration pathways skew towards former refugees with a low number of ‘convention refugees’, a low number of migrants with residence visas from the parent category and no representation of migrants with work visas from the humanitarian sub-stream.

Age groups

• 6 people aged 20 to 29
• 9 people aged 30 to 39
• 15 people aged 40 to 49
• 6 people aged 50 to 59
• 5 people aged 60+

Gender

• 23 people identified as female
• 18 people identified as male
• 0 people identified as non-binary

Immigration pathways

• 15 quota refugees (including 1 community support refugee)
• 10 family support refugees
• 2 convention refugees
• 6 migrants with work visa based on partnership
• 6 migrants with residence visa based on partnership
• 2 migrants with residence visa from parent category
• 0 migrants with work visa from humanitarian sub-stream

Time since arrival in NZ

• 11 people living in NZ for more than 10 years
• 11 people living in NZ for 5 to 10 years
• 10 people living in NZ for 3 to 5 years
• 9 people living in NZ for less than 3 years

Qualifications

• 5 people with no qualification
• 3 people with an overseas primary school qualification
• 9 people with an overseas secondary and high school qualification
• 2 people with an overseas tertiary certificate or diploma
• 9 people with an overseas bachelor’s degree or higher
• 5 people with an NZ tertiary certificate or diploma
• 4 people pursuing an NZ bachelor’s degree or higher
• 4 people with an NZ bachelor’s degree or higher

Employment status

• 11 people employed full time
• 3 people employed part time
• 5 people unemployed
• 6 people not in the labour force — caregiver to children
• 5 people not in the labour force — student
• 3 people not in the labour force — injury
• 3 people not in the labour force — retiree
• 2 people not in the labour force — illness
• 2 people not in the labour force — caregiver to parents
• 1 person not in the labour force — disabled

Ethnicities

• 2 people identified as Afghan
• 1 person identified as Bhutanese
• 1 person identified as Brazilian
• 1 person identified as Burmese
• 2 people identified as Cambodian
• 8 people identified as Colombian
• 1 person identified as Eritrean
• 2 people identified as Ethiopian
• 2 people identified as Indian
• 2 people identified as Iranian
• 1 person identified as Kurdish
• 1 person identified as Malaysian
• 2 people identified as Nepali
• 2 people identified as Somali
• 1 person identified as Sudanese
• 5 people identified as Syrian
• 1 person identified as Turkish
• 2 people identified as Vietnamese
• 4 people identified as Zomi

5.4. Analysis

Thirty-eight interviews were audio-recorded and 3 interviews were not audio-recorded at the participant’s request. The interviews were then transcribed, coded and mapped to identify themes based on affinity mapping, supported by the digital inclusion MAST framework. This technique allows qualitative information to be grouped and quantified based on its similarities.

Where interviews were not recorded, handwritten notes were used instead of the transcription.

The data was then analysed and investigated to generate insights and be peer-reviewed.

5.5. Ethics

Informed consent

A 1-page summary of this research project and the consent form were translated into 12 languages. These documents were used to communicate with former refugees and migrants to make sure the intent of this research project was understood before the research took place.

Voluntary basis

Participants were made aware that:

• their participation was completely voluntary
• they were free to withdraw at any time before or during the interview
• they did not have to answer any questions that they did not want to
• participating or declining to participate did not have an impact on services they receive from DIA or their immigration status.

Privacy and confidentiality

• Quotes, insights, observations were made anonymous to protect their identity and personal information. The research team does not have access to any participants’ records at DIA.
• Participants can receive a copy of their information at any time by contacting DIA’s Privacy team at privacy@dia.govt.nz.

Support

• If there was concern for a participant’s immediate safety, the Ministry of Health guidelines would be followed — which could mean taking them to the hospital or contacting the mental health crisis assessment team (Ministry of Health, 2021).
• Participants could bring a support person with them for the interview session.

Ethics

• This research’s ethics are guided by the IDEO Design Research Ethics (2016) and the Royal Society’s Code of Professional Standards and Ethics, (2019). Code of Professional Standards and Ethics in Science, Technology and the Humanities: Interpretation.

5.6. Limitations

Due to no representation of migrants with work visas from the humanitarian sub-stream and low numbers for migrants with residence visas from the parent category, the insights from this research should not be generalised for these groups. The same rationale is applied for convention refugees.

For some interviews, interpreters were nominated by the participants based on their trusted relationship. There might be bias in the interpreted responses due to personal relationships.

For interviews conducted in English at a participant’s request where participants have lower English language proficiency, the responses are usually less elaborated.

For responses related to the time periods, they rely on the participants’ memories, so the responses might or might not be accurate.

For the digital skill activity, the responses are based on self-evaluation, so they might be under- or over-evaluated.

6. Literature review

6.1. Introduction

Existing literature tends to focus on understanding the usage of ICT by refugees and migrants, including their information literacy practices, use of digital devices (such as mobile phone), and how these relate to their transnational journey, settlement journey, social inclusion and wellbeing.

Most of the literature reviewed for this report uses qualitative research techniques and is very localised. There is little research on the use of digital technologies by refugees and migrants at specific points in their settlement journeys, or on what are the factors that hinder or facilitate digital inclusion levels and progression of these groups. This qualitative research aims to understand the above-mentioned gap in 2 time periods: the first 3 months and first 3 years’ experience of former refugees and marginalised migrants with English as a second language in the NZ context.

To begin with, the reviewed literature highlights major differences between refugees and migrants which sets out the rationales for the focused research participants of this study. The literature is then organised by themes, within each theme it’s further arranged chronologically.

6.2. Differences in definitions and experiences between ‘refugees’ and ‘migrants’

Legal definitions

Even though refugees and migrants with English as a second language were identified under one heading in Digital New Zealanders: The pulse of our Nation (Digital Inclusion Research Group, 2017), there are clear legal distinctions between refugees and migrants, which was acknowledged by the United Nations General Assembly in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (UN General Assembly, 2016).

‘Refugees’ are defined by United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as people outside their country of origin because of feared persecution, conflict, violence or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order, and who, as a result, require ‘international protection’. On the other hand, there is no uniform legal definition of ‘migrants’ at the international level (UNHCR, 2018).

UNHCR contends that migration is a voluntary process and ‘migrants’ are often understood as individuals crossing borders in search of economic opportunities on their own free will. They may also return to their countries at any time. This is not the case for refugees. As a result, using these two terms interchangeably or blurring these 2 groups can have serious consequences for the lives and safety of refugees who require specific legal protections under international law (UNHCR, 2018).

Experience differences between ‘refugees’ and ‘migrants’

Besides the legal definition distinction, refugees and migrants go through different experiences when they arrive in a new country. In NZ, refugees who arrive under the Refugee Quota Programme are granted Permanent Resident status and transferred to Te Āhuru Mōwai o Aotearoa (the Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre) where they receive the 5-week reception programme to prepare them to live and work in the community.

Prior to completion of the reception programme, suitable housing is allocated to them, which could be public housing or private rentals. They are also provided settlement support for up to 12 months, including a community orientation programme that complements the reception programme and support, to link to services they require for their settlement in communities (Immigration New Zealand, n.d.). However, other refugees with different immigration pathways, such as family support refugees and convention refugees, might not go through a resettlement programme.

Migrants don’t usually go through the same steps as refugees and receive different settlement support. These settlement services, provided by INZ in partnership with other government agencies and third-party providers, are distributed individually rather than collectively as a programme, such as what quota refugees receive. Migrants can also access free information services funded by INZ (Immigration New Zealand, n.d.). Some migrants might also have more social and economic resources with them when arriving in New Zealand which could facilitate their digital inclusion and settlement journey.

As concluded by Holmes and Janson, some migrants might not be necessarily regarded as a ‘disadvantaged’ group due to their uptake and use of ICT along with their willingness to engage in computer-mediated communication (CMC), although many of them in the study were engaged in professional and business activities (Holmes and Janson, 2008).

This is not to say that all migrants’ settlement journey is easier than those of refugees, because there exists a group of migrants who face almost similar social, economic, cultural and political challenges as former refugees do during their settlement journey.

Suggestive similarities between ‘refugees’ and ‘marginalised migrants’

As recorded in Australian research, newly arrived young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds often face additional challenges compared to their Australia-born and non-culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) peers (Kenny, 2016). These can include financial strain, limited social networks, lack of cultural capital, intergenerational conflict, disrupted education, low or limited English language proficiency, and racism and discrimination (MYAN p.13, as cited in Kenny, 2016).

In support of this view, Belong Aotearoa and other NGOs in NZ describe ‘marginalised migrants’ as a population group of people who were born overseas and arrived in NZ of their own free will as migrants to pursue employment, education or other opportunities — and who subsequently experience significant settlement challenges that require access to bespoke social work services.

This includes migrants with humanitarian-like backgrounds who share similar experiences to people of refugee backgrounds but did not arrive in NZ under any refugee pathway — migrants who experience financial challenges such as long-term unemployment and / or reliance on benefits and migrants who experience significant social exclusion and isolation (Belong Aotearoa, UMMA Trust, RASNZ, NZ Red Cross, Asylum Seekers Support Trust, Aotearoa Resettled Community Coalition, Family Action, 2020).

In conclusion, there is a high level of commonality between former refugees and marginalised migrants needing to access support services for their settlement. There is less commonality between former refugees and other groups of migrants, such as skilled migrants. In this research, former refugees and marginalised migrants are the main focus.

6.3. Affordable digital communications and barriers to making full use of tools and technologies

Digital technologies enable refugees and migrants to meet one of their key needs: affordable communication with their social networks. However, barriers still exist to using digital tools to their advantage.

Communicating with friends and family was highlighted as the highest priority activity done by newly arrived migrants and mobile people from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) in their first phase of settlement in Australia. Email was the most widely used application, with Skype and Facebook coming second (Felton, 2015).

This communication need coincides with resettled refugees’ use of ICT to ‘communicate effectively’ and ‘be socially connected’ as identified in a study in NZ. These are 2 of the 5 digital capabilities that are crucial in helping former refugees to settle in their new society and regain control over their past disrupted lives (Andrade and Doolin, 2016).

In other studies, with refugees in Paris, Cherbourg and Rome, the authors find that the main reason for owning a smartphone is that it enables them to connect at little or no cost to friends and family all over the world via the internet, especially while they are travelling to their host country (Gillespie, et al., 2016; George, 2017). This finding is also supported by Pischetola and Sozzani’s study with asylum seekers in a temporary camp in Italy (Pischetola and Sozzani, 2018).

It’s reported that 72% of ICT / digital platforms used by displaced people in Greece and USA provide two-way communication. Distinct from one-way communication platforms such as unidirectional informational websites, two-way communication digital platforms allow exchanges between 2 parties such as tutors and refugees and migrants, between camp health workers and medical experts.

The authors also state that 74% of digital platforms used by their participants involve crowdsourcing. That is, information generated by a wide range of platform users (the crowd) for a collective good, for example, a digital map of available assets and to-be-avoided hazards for displaced people based on crowdsourcing information (Bock, Haque, and McMahon, 2020).

Although refugees and migrants make great use of affordable digital technologies to communicate and stay socially connected, technologies are not utilised to this group’s advantage or to enhance their social conditions. This was explained through several barriers:

• lower English language proficiency and lack of local experience limits employment seeking opportunities (Felton, 2015)
• inaccurate assumptions and generalisation on people’s digital skills and access prohibits the assistance they need to be digitally included (Kenny, 2016)
• online services and platforms are designed without considering refugees and migrants’ needs, digital literacy, skill levels and socio-psychological factors such as fear of surveillance, mistrust and lack of confidence (Gillespie, et al., 2016; Zewdie, 2017; Alonso, Thoene, and Benavides, 2020).

6.4. Barriers to using official online information

There are barriers to using online information from official sources by recently arrived refugees and migrants.

Several factors such as mismatched models, subjective preferences, and lack of awareness and skills are concluded as barriers that contribute to the insufficient use of official online information by recently arrived refugees and / or migrants. As a result, this negatively affects their settlement in the new country.

As the authors point out, the experience of accessing information and getting things done in the refugees’ original country does not match that of their new host country. These discrepancies present significant information deprivation in their initial stage of settlement.

This prevents them from connecting with their new community, building awareness and engaging with text-based information sources. To compensate for this information shortage, refugees focus on oral and visual sources of information provided by trusted service providers rather than written materials (Lloyd, Kennan, Thompson, and Qayyum, 2013).

In the field of User Experience (UX) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the mismatch between what users know and believe about a system such as a website (known as a ‘mental model’) and how these systems actually work, creates usability issues and confusion. To resolve these mismatched mental models, either making the systems conform with users’ mental model and / or improving users’ mental model by explaining things better, can be considered as solutions (Nielsen, 2010).

In another study with newly arrived migrants and mobile people from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) in their early stage of settlement in Australia, Felton concludes that online information sources including visually-rich ones from existing government and local community websites are not sufficiently used even though this group are high users of ICT. Instead, they seek information directly via their own community and / or social networks (Felton, 2015).

Pischetola and Sozzani, in their study about asylum seekers in Italy, note that owning a phone with access to wifi helps this group to maintain connection and communication with their families while they travel to their host country. Upon reaching their host country, they prefer to gather information needed by communicating directly with people from their own nationalities or geographical areas (Pischetola and Sozzani, 2018).

In addition to previous findings on lack of online information usage due to users’ preference, it’s asserted that refugees and asylum seekers face several challenges when settling in a highly digitalised society in Sweden. This is because various resources only exist in digital forms and they might lack the awareness and / or necessary skills to access them (Zewdie, 2017).

The author argues that public-sector services in Sweden are designed for digitally competent people and therefore they are too advanced and inaccessible for other groups. As a result, public-sector services should be adjusted to serve the needs of these newcomers for their better social and digital inclusion (Zewdie, 2017).

In support of Zewdie’s view, it’s concluded that there is an important gap between the availability of services and newly arrived refugees’ knowledge of them. Ninety-three percent of participants possessed a mobile phone, tablet, or computer with continuous access to the internet, and almost half of the group considered themselves as beginners or at an intermediate level in using these devices. Despite this, the use of social computing applications and online services as a resource to support integration was determined by people’s preferences and skills when using digital devices. (Alonso, Thoene, and Benavides, 2020).

In the NZ context, it’s reported that approximately 700,000 adult New Zealanders (20%) lack the essential digital skills they need to use the internet safely and effectively. It’s noted that the survey might not have included other populations that are hard to reach (Bank of New Zealand, 2021).

6.5. Digitally included people achieve better social inclusion and well-being

As Andrade and Doolin conclude in their study, resettled refugees’ ICT use contributes to their capabilities ‘to participate in an information society, to communicate effectively, to understand a new society, to be socially connected, and to express a cultural identity’. As a result, realising these 5 digital capabilities enhances this group’s social inclusion (Andrade and Doolin, 2016).

The authors also adopt a capability approach (Sen, as cited in Andrade and Doolin, 2016), shifting the focus from ‘the resources a person has access to, towards uses a person can make of those resources available to them’. In simple terms, it’s not only about what was done for them, for example, infrastructure, access to digital technologies, but also about what was done by them, that is, how people use digital technologies to enhance their capabilities and achieve the life they value (Andrade and Doolin, 2016; George, 2017).

The findings in a study with refugees in Rome indicate that smartphones are vital — ‘as important as water’ — for the psychological well-being of the participants. When faced with substantial hardship, frequent contact via smartphones helps refill their emotional and psychological resilience (George, 2017).

On internet access in NZ, those with access tend to have higher wellbeing and richer social outcomes than those without access, although this is an associative relationship rather than causal one based on data analysis of 4 large-scale surveys (Grimes and White, 2019).

In another quantitative study of an ethnic-diverse suburb in Sweden, those who report feeling included in the digital society, measured by use of internet, digital ID, and online payments, also feel included in the society in general. In addition, they trust politicians and authorities (Wihlborg, Kaharevic, Kulanovic, and Elg, 2021).

Results from a separate study of secondary data analysis of 121 countries show that digital inclusion and ICT access significantly influence quality of life at the global level. Furthermore, the results support individual IT usage as a crucial link between digital inclusion and quality of life (Alhassan and Adam, 2021). It should be noted that the proposed model in this study is developed on a country level, and therefore the same conclusion might or might not apply to different populations including the disadvantaged groups.

6.6. Summary

The themes identified above through the literature review help to partially answer questions in the digital inclusion research agenda as well as inform the scope of this research.

Barriers to digital inclusion for former refugees and migrants are compounded by other factors including social, cultural, economic and political challenges that arise when settling in their new host country.

It is hypothesised that enhancing the digital inclusion elements — motivation, access, skills and trust (MAST) — will improve this group’s digital inclusion and therefore factors associated with their settlement journey.

7. Insights and findings

Section 7 provides answers from the research to the key questions in the Digital Inclusion Research Agenda.

As mentioned in section 4.2.1., this research aims to answer the key questions 1b, 1c, 2b in the Digital Inclusion Research Agenda.

Key question:

Which elements of digital inclusion (motivation, access, skills or trust) are lacking for the groups that have a lower likelihood of being digitally included?

Research insight:

Access and skills are 2 main digital inclusion elements lacking for former refugees and marginalised migrants.

Key question:

What are the barriers to, and enablers of, digital inclusion for people in these groups?

Research insight on digital inclusion barriers:

Specific barriers to address for this group are:

• device and internet affordability
• service accessibility
• language barriers
• a lack of opportunities to attend digital skills training
• a fear of personal information misuse.

Lower English language proficiency, cultural characteristics, and lower socio-economic status are other factors creating barriers to digital inclusion for this group.

Research insight on digital inclusion enablers:

Specific enablers for this group are:

• motivation to stay in touch with social networks especially overseas ones
• an understanding of the necessity to use digital technologies
• social and economic benefits of the digital world
• a trust in and support from social networks.

Gaining a higher education also facilitates digital inclusion as it translates to higher digital skills for some people in this group.

Key question:

How does digital inclusion relate to waiora wellbeing?

Research insight:

Digital inclusion partially influences this group’s access to social services in the longer term especially if more services are moving towards online self-service. Digital inclusion also influences this group’s subjective wellbeing because of the psychological benefits of connection with their social networks overseas.

7.1. Motivation

7.1.1. Factors that motivate this group to use digital technologies

The biggest motivation for former refugees and marginalised migrants to use digital technologies is to stay in touch with families and loved ones overseas. This is made possible and affordable by digital technologies such as smartphones and the internet. This motivation remains high when comparing the first 3 months and first 3 years of settlement periods. There is a link between keeping in touch with family using digital technologies and increased subjective wellbeing.

I live here, all my family’s living way, way, way far. But we can communicate easily with this thing. So it’s very helpful. I’m mostly talking to my parents, and my brother and my sister and all my family there on Viber mostly. Most of the time we video call, because they want to see their grandson too. So every day they just video call.

Even though economic benefits such as time saving, online learning and convenience of getting things done without having to leave the house are valuable factors perceived by this group, these benefits are not fully realised because of barriers in other digital inclusion elements such as access and skills.

He feels like he finds it nice that he doesn’t have to leave the house to do something. If he knows what he’s doing it will be faster.

Social media platforms provide social benefits of ‘information coming to you’ compared to having to search for it such as news, lost contacts, community announcements, and social circle updates mostly in ethnic languages. This factor links to the decrease of a digital inclusion element such as trust because of cybercrimes such as misinformation and online scams.

Some information even though you don’t look for it, it just comes to social media. At the moment what happened back in our country, you don’t need to look and ask for information. It’s on social media posts. If you open your Facebook app, there is lots of information there.

The increased trend of key services moving online, for example, banking and government services makes it necessary to use digital technologies. However, this group’s level of online self-service remains at a fundamental level involving simple tasks. This includes checking account balance, checking email for service communications, and checking individual accounts such as MyMSD. There are challenges in completing more complex tasks such as applying for a service online which usually requires multiple steps, higher level of English proficiency, digital skills and access to devices such as laptops.

They said go to that website and then do this, do this and then go to ... I don’t know what form to fill up and then what to upload on my side and the other side ... I don’t know ... too much already. Email is just for send and read, open and then I reply.

Those who settled in NZ more than 10 years ago and understand how government services work, and have good English language and digital skills, are motivated to use online self-services and email communications to access key services. This is because self-service and conversations using email allow a smoother exchange of information and avoid miscommunication due to difficulties in understanding different accents.

Because it’s easy, and I don’t need to speak in person. Because our pronunciation is very hard to understand for other people. So if I do it online, I don’t need to speak, I don’t need to go there. Just do like 10 minutes, and I can finish.

7.1.2. Factors that demotivate this group to use digital technologies

Some former refugees and marginalised migrants have no prior experience of using digital devices, the internet or online services before coming to NZ. This creates gaps in their knowledge of what is possible to achieve with digital technologies. There is not much change to this factor when comparing the first 3 months and first 3 years of settlement periods because of a lack of access to relevant devices and lower digital skills.

It took me a really long time, even though like friends or classmates where I used to study with, they already got the smartphones and they started to pop up. I didn’t have a smartphone straight away. But then again, I didn’t realise that was a challenge, because I didn’t know what a smartphone could do. And I was quite used to my lifestyle until my phone broke. And then I had to get a new one. And we ended up getting a smartphone for my mom and for myself. It took me 3 years.

Basic needs such as having stable housing, having an income, raising children, and taking care of family members with illness take priority, and mental availability to learn is scarce.

At the time we arrived, all the children were so young, so I was busy with them and don’t have time to study even though they have a parents’ school. I can’t focus compared to other people because I had to start from the beginning. Yeah, really, really beginning I can’t even write ABC. So when I have to sit with other people who already know, I feel terrible. And also with the children. Distraction. I just gave up. So until now I can’t speak much so I can’t go to work properly. That’s the main thing.

7.2. Access

7.2.1. Positive factors that influence connectivity, affordability and accessibility

Connectivity

Support from social networks such as volunteers, settlement workers, family members or community members is key for this group to access the internet, especially in the first 3 months of arrival. The support includes setting up internet connection at home and connect devices to wifi.

Affordability

Not everyone has a smartphone when they come to NZ. In the first 3 months, they are usually given one by their family or community members. Although some remain with no access to digital devices such as smartphones for many years — it takes encouragement and support from family members or friends to help start them on the digital journey.

I learned how to use this phone. Before I was using the landline, then it was taken out and I have no phone. Then I went and bought the phone [after 6 years in NZ]. One of my friends told me to buy this phone and then they taught me how to use it. I’m still using it ... Then I learned everything on the phone.

Some communities have a communal smartphone for the newly arrived to use to let family overseas know they have arrived in NZ.

She was saying that when they arrived in New Zealand. The most important thing they wanted to do was to tell their families in Colombia that they had arrived well and that they were safe. That’s something they wish they had had at the time because the access to the internet wasn’t really good and it was really limited. So having this opportunity to communicate with them is the most important and actually because of this when they were already established in New Zealand, they decided to start a small family project where they bought a small phone to make it available for other Spanish-speaking families coming to NZ. And when someone arrived, they lend their phone to the family so they can contact their loved ones wherever they come from, and that’s what they did up until one and a half-year ago which is when no one else came [because of COVID-19].

Accessibility

Social networks mentioned above are a key support for this group to access essential services, especially in their first 3 months. In-person appointments or phone calls with interpretation services are the preferred modes of service access. Self-service online access is not possible due to an English language barrier, lack of resources in ethnic languages, limited digital skills, and unfamiliarity with how online systems work in general (multi-step process, online forms, profile creation) and NZ-specific requirements (RealMe). This trend remains mostly unchanged for the first 3 years of their settlement in NZ because it takes time to improve English proficiency and digital literacy.

We didn’t know anything about New Zealand before we came. Basically, just before we came to New Zealand, we were given a little bit of information about New Zealand. Honestly speaking, we don’t know where New Zealand is. Yeah. As I said, When I arrived here at the resettlement agency, they provide me volunteer support worker, she pretty much did everything for me, like how to go shopping, how to use your bank card, how to go to work and income, or how to go to school, how to take bus or everything is what this support worker helps me and to guide me and lead me and support me to settle in a new community.

7.2.2. Negative factors that influence connectivity, affordability and accessibility

Connectivity

For those who arrived more than 10 years ago, there was no internet connectivity in the first 3 months and less connectivity in the first 3 years because of cost barriers and low motivation. Contacting families overseas was done via landline or calling cards.

2006, not much internet thing you can do. Only texting, calling with mobile phones. And so the first 3 months of my life in New Zealand, I didn’t really have any access to the internet. Yeah, I can say that, no internet.

Connectivity to free public wifi is reported to be inconsistent, of low speed or time-bound, or all of the above. Not everyone knows how to drive or is familiar with or have the means to access public transport systems. As a result, it’s not always possible to rely on free public wifi access unless it’s within walking distance or with transport assistance.

When we came here first, we had no internet and then the volunteer told us, obviously it would take time for the internet connection. So we go to the library with our volunteers to get some internet access. You know, to talk to our families and then come home, that was a difficult time.

Affordability

The majority of newly arrived former refugees and marginalised migrants do not have access to larger devices such as desktops or laptops in the first 3 months or first 3 years. This is due to cost barriers, lack of skills to use one, and other factors such as housing conditions (lack of space in overcrowded homes).

Connection to the internet outside of home is not always available due to the cost of mobile data, mobile plans and top-ups when data limits are reached.

It costs me to buy data, extra data. So that is why I don’t really use that.”

I had some data, but I didn’t know how to connect them and how to activate them. That’s why I ran out of money. I was paying heaps of money for just like one week.

Accessibility

Most online services are not accessible because the content is mainly in English. There is also a lack of resources in ethnic languages. The language barrier is a big issue for this group especially for the newly arrived with a lower proficiency in English language.

I don’t have a computer or laptop, just a smartphone that I use every day. I don’t access any government services due to my limited English.

It might be a bit easier if those services might be in Arabic. I might be able to go through and read and understand and follow the steps on instructions but because it’s in English so it’s difficult for me to understand what to do.

Some websites have options to change language. But in the New Zealand government websites or banks or all these things, they don’t have that in New Zealand. But if you go find by Google, Google has many languages like Gmail, you can open it, Facebook, you can change the language. But New Zealand no, just English, or some Te Reo, some websites would have Chinese.

For accessing government services, in-person is still perceived as a more effective way to get important things done and to resolve issues and questions especially when online services fail and users are redirected back to paper, phone call or in-person options. For those who have the willingness to use online self-service, it’s time consuming because they need to use online translation tools to help them understand the content and applications. Despite those efforts, help is still needed with questions, requirements and technical terms.

It was really hard to resolve those issues that are coming up. So I think if I go there and spend some time on it, I can solve it quicker. Because I didn’t have a car, it took a lot of time for me to go there and go back again. And I didn’t have the money. But I decided to go there, solve it and come back, to be as efficient as possible.

Work and Income, I still need to go. I can’t do much online. Because even if I want to make an appointment, they say I can do it online, when I search for the information, they write a message that we need to call to book the appointment. I can’t do much online for MSD.

I won’t be able to do it [online]. Because of my English, I know some words, I can try putting them together but it's not always correct. Even if you use Google Translate, it might not be correct or accurate. So I depend on my kids, for them to check or they do it for me. Or I’ll need to use an interpreter, which costs money.

7.3. Skills

7.3.1. Factors that help people develop digital skills

Self-motivation aspects such as willingness to adapt, to learn new things and to be self-dependent are drivers to improve digital skills.

Trusted people in the community or family members are best placed as intermediaries to help transfer knowledge, provide support and facilitate digital skills training.

There is evidence that digital skills training provided in an ethnic language facilitates the process of acquiring digital skills independent of English language proficiency.

However, there needs to be a clear separation in digital skill levels, so that the training can be effective and empowering.

We have people who have like zero level of computers, of the device itself. And some people have totally zero experience with anything called social media, anything like a smartphone or whatever. So we have to not mix them all in one course in one class. We take those like people who have basic skills of computers, and social media, we put them in another course. And those people we like had 100% zero experience, we teach them from kind of like ABCD you know, like when you have no English at all. We teach from ABCD. So this way should be practical in New Zealand.

The complexity level of tasks affects the type of digital devices needed to do the tasks. There is a clear preference to use larger devices such as laptops and desktops to access complex government services, to do deep research and write long emails due to the bigger screen size. Smartphones are for quick tasks: to read emails, check accounts, and do an initial scan of information.

It’s easier for me to use the laptop, the screen is bigger. I’m more familiar with laptops, especially with writing. For example, if I want to write an email, it’s not easy for me to write it with a mobile ... The keyboard is bigger, and I could work with both hands.

7.3.2. Skills focus area

The top 3 most important areas of digital skills are:

1. 1. online transaction skills
2. 2. online safety and security skills
3. 3. skills to handle online information and content.

Please note there are more specific digital skills within each of these areas (see appendix 4).

The top 5 specific digital skills that participants want to improve on are:

1. 1. storing information in the cloud and accessing that content from different devices
2. 2. updating devices regularly to prevent viruses and other risks
3. 3. managing their money and transactions online securely
4. 4. accessing and using public services online, for example, vehicle registration, MyMSD
5. 5. paying for goods or services online.

7.3.3. Factors that hinder developing digital skills

There are factors that hinder people developing skills to use the internet and digital technology.

A lack of English language proficiency is a significant barrier to acquiring digital skills as most training is provided in English. This results in slow improvement of digital skills and adoption of digital technologies. This trend remains unchanged for the first 3 months and first 3 years of settlement.

Free class is very important for adults because I mean for adults, even though we have a computer, most people cannot open [it] up, don’t know how to use it, so this kind of computer course is very important for them. But the second problem is this course gives a lesson by English. There’s another big problem. So if we have someone who can teach in our language, this will be very appreciated. Because now, technology is everywhere. So at that point, everyone needs to understand at least the basic course. And as we said, the government or a lot of organisations offer these free courses, but it is still difficult for us. Because we don’t know, most people don’t know English. Computer terms are more difficult to understand.

Low confidence and high priority of basic needs, such as having stable housing, working to bring in income, raising children and taking care of sick family members, affects the continual attendance of training classes. This applies for both digital skills and English language training.

Women in this group are at greater risk of digital exclusion due to lower levels of digital skills and lack of opportunities and support to attend training classes mainly because of domestic care-giving duties, followed by injuries and illnesses.

Coming here from the day we arrived in Auckland, I became a full-time caregiver for my mother because she collapsed in Hong Kong before arriving with a minor stroke. All the first 2 years, I didn’t have any support with learning English. What I had was given $100 and a vocabulary book to an interpreter to record her voice on a tape for me to pronounce the word and I kept listening to it. That was my first English learning. And I enrolled with my new colleagues to do technology, to learn English, but I told them that I will be 80% absent because I was still looking after my parents, just going a little bit to improve and be involved with people, meeting people.

7.4. Trust

7.4.1. Factors support trust

Social networks such as volunteers, settlement workers, family members, community members and leaders, and friends are the most trusted networks and therefore best placed as intermediaries to help with digital inclusion initiatives.

Government websites and channels, well-known brands of banks, telecommunication and news outlets are also trusted sources.

He usually likes to read but he used his mind to analyse if this was true or false information. He can monitor some channels and see if he finds doubts but after a while if he feels all the information is valid, then he trusts it. In general, he trusts most of the government channels that he’s following. And he trusts the information coming from them.

Social influence is also an important factor to help people adopt and trust digital technologies.

And in the process [of learning to use online banking], I just went to the bank. I just told them, I want to use internet banking. And my husband uses it for a long time. So he showed me this way, that way. And they showed me. I found it very easy. And I just started using it.

7.4.2. Factors reduce trust

The fear of personal information being tracked, trapped and collected for unrelated purposes is the biggest source of distrust.

The most worrying thing and most untrusted thing that I don’t like is identity theft and you know, for your information, be cautious because you don’t know if these people are going to take it and you’re not sure if you did the right thing when you fill out that form.

The fear of credit card details being stolen, charged without consent (subscription-based services), or potential of irreversible mistakes (transferring money to the wrong person) are a second source of distrust. This creates barriers to conducting online activities such as online shopping, banking and payments for key services.

I have to give credit card details, because some banks, they save the credit card details, if I don’t read carefully, they might save my credit details and that’s why I feel it is not safe to buy and provide my credit card details. And also, sometimes we do like monthly subscriptions and I just clicked it and so automatically they had it. Yeah, it is the reason that I don’t buy anything online.

Previous first- or second-hand experiences of cybercrimes such as online frauds, scams and hacks lowers the trust in the digital world especially if the activities involve the collection of personal information, credit cards and bank account details.

I'm very concerned about buying things online. I never do. I don’t do it. I’m not sure where my credit card would be. Because my credit card has been cloned in a PayPal transaction. I don’t do it anymore. Because somebody spent a lot out of my account. The bank returned it. I don’t do it.

For those who have mobile data, there is a preference to use mobile data rather than free public wifi because public wifi is seen as unsecured and untrustworthy.

Smaller brands, third-party providers and smaller banks are also considered untrustworthy for some.

7.5. Other barriers

7.5.1. Other barriers to digital inclusion for people in this group

The lack of English language proficiency and resources in ethnic languages are long-term barriers to digital inclusion for this group.

This is exacerbated by a lack of awareness or understanding of how things work in NZ, and what government information and services are available, especially for those who are not eligible to go through government resettlement programmes. This results in a lack of access to key services online and offline.

I mean, compared to the technology available now, everything was very difficult. But back then, because I was not totally aware of what the key services are, because you’re not totally aware of what you don’t have at the time, so you kind of just make do with what you have and not even think ‘oh this is difficult’, you just do it.

Cultural characteristics need to be considered when raising awareness or delivering government services, or doing both — especially if it’s online. Some cultures consider it shameful to ask questions or for help. Some people do not want to come across as troublesome to others. This leads to a lack of feedback to service providers, especially when the services are not well-delivered online or offline — for example, by phone or at a service centre.

Like asking questions for help or something like that ... because the culture is kind of a bit of a shame to ask: can you help me? [In hindsight] I would do it differently, I would ask even if I didn’t understand.

Our community, they complained to each other, but they didn’t complain to the higher office. So they just tell their feelings to nearby neighbours or friends but they never report to the service providers, also because of the language barrier. They don’t want to try and it’s a big problem.

Lower socio-economic status forms another barrier to digital inclusion for this group, specifically in accessing digital devices, mobile data and plans, and unlimited home internet. This affects the motivation, access and skills elements in the MAST framework because it takes time to improve socio-economic conditions.

7.5.2. Other enablers of digital inclusion for people in this group

Gaining a higher education seems to be associated with a higher level of digital inclusion, especially in the skills element. This is observed in former refugees who pursued or are pursuing higher education in NZ and in some migrants with higher education backgrounds.

7.6. Digital inclusion and wellbeing

7.6.1. How digital inclusion influence access to social services

Digital inclusion partially influences this group’s access to social services in longer terms, especially with the move to more online self-service. For this group, the difference in social services access and mode of access between their previous country and NZ is reflected. This is compounded by a lack of previous experience accessing the internet and digital devices, and lower English language proficiency for the majority of former refugees and migrants. This makes accessing online social services challenging.

In the first 3 months in NZ, the support of volunteers, settlement workers, family, friends and community members is key to accessing essential services. The preferred modes of access are in-person appointments and phone calls. This trend remains unchanged for the first 3 years.

For those who already possess or improve their digital skills and English competence over the years, accessing social services online in NZ still poses some barriers. However, this is less extreme. Common barriers are unfamiliarity with NZ systems, colloquial and technical terms, and difficulty to understand different accents if the services are accessed by phone.

7.6.2. Digital inclusion influences social connections and subjective wellbeing

Connecting with families and friends overseas is the biggest motivation and the most common use of smartphones for this group. The affordability of smartphones, aided by relatively stable internet connection in NZ, such as wifi at home, creates an economical and consistent way for them to be in contact with their families. Therefore, digital inclusion enables this group to maintain family and social connections overseas that would, otherwise, be impossible. This directly benefits their wellbeing by reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation, especially for the newly arrived.

When internet connections are disrupted, there is a negative effect on their subjective wellbeing if this group loses contact with their overseas families about their situation. A disruption in NZ may be due to a data cap being reached or an internet outage. In their original country, network infrastructure or connectivity may be disrupted by socio-political events or high internet costs.

I have my parents, my brother and two sisters back at home as well. Unfortunately, they are not in a good situation because there is an ongoing war in that region. It’s stressful to think about. It’s very hard because the network keeps going down. So I do call them just directly. I use a different application to call them, because the normal services wouldn't work or connect me. Yeah, so I just installed the app. We charge it and call them directly if that works. And it’s currently not working.

8. Personal stories

8.1. A former refugee student and advocate

This story is about a former refugee student who advocates on behalf of the digitally excluded community for equal access to services.

He understands the importance of digital technologies and focuses on improving his digital knowledge and skills to achieve future economic outcomes.

I’m dedicating a good time to my education ... because there are people that study with me that have much more, a better chance at getting an interview and everything because they have this online profile, an online presence early on. For example, they have GitHub, which is just a website to store your code … and they have projects there ... which I didn’t even know about GitHub until I got here, until last year … which is what most employers look for, when they want to see what personal projects you did. Any personal projects that I did back home, they are not online anywhere, so they have more chances ... so I just tried to do with the time that I have, concentrate on any spare time that I have on doing personal projects and just get good grades, because I feel that would be useful.

Digital technologies make it possible and affordable to maintain overseas family and social connections as well as settling in NZ.

We’re using wifi … makes it a lot less expensive to contact anyone. Because you can, even if you don’t have a wifi in your house, you can go to public places and use that and be able to contact people with not much cost. That seems good. And getting information is much easier.

I search from university stuff to just any question that comes to my mind like how to do some specific tasks or just ideas ... This was much easier. If there was no internet, it would be really hard to have more understanding of your surroundings.

Unawareness of online service availability, compounded by language barrier makes accessing online services challenging.

Just getting familiar with all available online tools ... I know that I have missed a lot of scholarships that I could have applied for last year. I just didn’t know at all, and there was no one to even guide me that there is this thing that I could take advantage of. So if you don’t even know that you miss it, when you’re being asked [about what is missing], the answer is going to be I’m not missing anything. So knowing those tools would be very useful. And I guess, same goes with I haven’t really interacted much with other government services … Most people in my community are not aware of those tools available that they can use ... just because they’re not aware of it, they lose these useful things that they can get. So I think knowing those would help me.

...

Because it’s not just me, but when I see my cousins, 2 of them are the same age as me. So it’s not like they are too old to understand the technology. They know how to use it, but the language barrier is there. So they always have to come to someone else to do things ... like when they are injured playing football and they want to get what’s called the ACC. It would be impossible for them to do it online. It might be much easier for me. So I had to be there in person to just translate between the people that work there and my family. But that would be very hard for us, emails or online.

8.2. A migrant reflects on his digital inclusion journey

In this story a migrant reflects on how far he has come on the digital inclusion journey.

Lack of previous experience with digital technologies and digital skills creates challenges to access and use online services in NZ.

The thing is only those who came from the outside, as a migrant, because they have a lack of technical use ... they have not too many ideas like how to use the online system, or the internet. Nowadays, it’s modernised but if you’re still overseas ... if the people come from a rural area, they don’t have access to the internet, laptop, or even the phone as well. They don’t have a hybrid kind of phone, just a normal dialling phone, that’s all there is. When they come here, I just think like any particular organisation or college whoever, they just need to train them properly first of all. So what kind of things they need ... what their basic needs are, normally like IRD, Immigration [NZ].

...

The thing is only because we came from one culture to another culture and one system to another system, that makes it difficult to adapt here, like to know the culture here, to know the market in New Zealand because it’s totally quite different from our country. In our country, normally we do everything manually, not by an online system, so in the beginning, it makes it quite hard to adapt here. But when getting used to the system here, it’s ok.

The first 3 months were challenging because everything was new, and in-person was the preferred method of accessing services.

Whatever I faced in my first 3 months, was very hard. We don’t even know how to use our bus card as well, where you get it and how to top up.

...

First 3 months, IRD, I remember, at the time, we just filled the form because everyone when they came to New Zealand to start work, needed to fill the IRD form. And the people who already knew about this thing, they support us to fill the form. And in the immigration centre, if we need to get information in Auckland, from our college, the immigration office is not far away. And we just go directly over there and get the information from there.

…

And that’s really how I feel, when I just think of those days … really, you know, how behind we were when we came here to NZ. And what’s the system here? And it is a really modernised system here. Because we do whatever we need through the system with all the data filled properly, it’s not really hard, but we need to go through the practical way in this system. So it made that easier in the future. I know how to update all these things nowadays. In that way, I feel better.

8.3. Story of a former refugee mother striving for education outcome

For this former refugee parent, a lack of access to a reliable internet service, lower digital skills and confidence were impediments to gaining higher education.

Lack of consistent internet access when they first arrived.

At the time we did not have any data, just Skinny because my brother buys for us the Skinny $5 one. So for $5, sometimes, if very urgent, we use it for a normal phone call. But some of our friends, their house has wifi so whenever we need to do anything online, we used to go to their house.

Lack of digital skills makes it difficult to study online, access government services online and help her children.

At the moment, I’m still learning and improving my English but because of the COVID when we had the lockdown, we needed to do it with a computer and I didn’t know how to do it so I stopped for a while. For me, my background is not technology … so for me it is more comfortable to study with the teacher and face to face.

…

Sometimes they used to say MyMSD that I can check and all, but I’m not good. So one of my brothers when he comes back ... I used to tell my husband to help me see. If they open [it], I can see, I can read, but I don’t know how to do it. Sometimes MyMSD is very ... for me, I cannot. This one, they always say, appointments you make are in MyMSD, if my husband is not at home, I don’t know how to do so I just call.

…

When my son had something from the school like homework, I have to try [using the computer to help him], otherwise for him, he missed the homework.

Low self-confidence in digital capabilities is demotivating and affects further education fulfilment.

I didn’t continue my study also, because of this computer thing ... Since I arrived, I have applied for early childhood education. And then they accepted me as level 4. And I study level 4. And I try my best. Like my husband helps me with my typing and everything. And in the class, they used to give each a laptop. So I don’t know what to do ... And my friends ... They are very good. They all help me, so I can finish my level 4. And I have my certificate, but I want to go for a diploma but I’m very poor at computers.

So I’m very shy. I feel ashamed. So my teacher said you can go for a diploma. And if after diploma, I can continue for my degree but because of the computer I cannot do it ... so I’m very ashamed of myself. So I just don’t. I just thought that I want to learn some more English to improve. Maybe after, I will study for the computer, maybe if I know how to use them. Maybe I will join for my diploma. I have a goal to achieve … maybe not a degree, at least a diploma. And then I want to work in an early childhood education centre.

8.4. Story of a newly arrived, determined former refugee during COVID-19

Despite the challenges created by COVID-19, this newly arrived former refugee was determined to improve his digital skills and English.

With a willingness to adapt and persevere through COVID-19’s difficult time, this newly arrived former refugee is driven to improve his English via remote learning and learn digital skills in his ethnic language.

It [was] a difficult time. I come to New Zealand and lockdown. Yeah, I don’t see anything. Just stay in the home.

...

[During lockdown] Maybe this is my first time. I learn English through WhatsApp with my teacher and all the family and teacher for children. I study 2 hours, 3 hours a day. I study with the phone. Sometimes with Duolingo or School in Your Pocket. I have many accounts for learning English.

...

Last month, I have 10 hours for this Gmail and [web] surfing. And they have more. For the internet, it’s very important … banking internet, I have appointments through the internet. Yes, everyone, all the world uses them.

This is my teacher ... this gives me a laptop like a small computer and I can use this. This teacher … about maybe 25 hours for everyone ... teaches in Arabic … Quick ... I can speak Arabic very well.

Despite the language barrier, when it comes to accessing government services online, he tries to work around the issue himself.

I sometimes use Gmail for Work and Income … they said please fill this form online. I can fill maybe about 15% of this. And I had to translate, use Google Translate and after a while I filled out the form.

9. Discussion

The findings in section 7. Insights and findings help to answer the 3 digital inclusion research agenda questions (refer to section 4.2.1.) and the questions asked in this research (refer to section 4.2.2.). However, due to the nature of qualitative research, some interpretation was also included in the findings.

This discussion section summarises the interpretations, implications and limitations of the findings and suggests recommendations as answers to question 4 of this research (refer to section 4.2.2.).

9.1. Interpretations and implications

There is not much change to the position of digital inclusion of former refugees and marginalised migrants with ESL when comparing the first 3 months and first 3 years of settlement periods.

Access and skills are the biggest challenges

Access and skills elements remain the biggest challenges for former refugees and marginalised migrants, exacerbated by English language and cultural barriers, and low socio-economic conditions. As these factors take time to improve, those who were digitally excluded from the beginning of their settlement in NZ tend to remain excluded for longer — sometimes years.

The support of social networks, such as volunteers, settlement workers, and community and family members, is key for this group to access settlement services — with in-person as the preferred mode of access. Due to these preferences, there are critical consequences in times such as COVID-19 or during global digitalisation trends, when online channels are the primary or only way to access services. Therefore, solving digital inclusion barriers of access and skills is crucial for their settlement in NZ.

Cost is a barrier to accessing digital devices, connectivity and data

Cost is the main barrier to accessing larger devices such as desktop or laptop computers, followed by a lack of skills to use them. There is also the cost barrier of unlimited home internet and mobile data. There are other factors such as housing conditions — such as lack of space in overcrowded homes — for the cohort in this study. These factors affect access to online services especially when this group needs to complete complex and multi-step tasks, such as applying for a government service, writing long emails, writing a CV or looking and applying for jobs.

Connection to the internet outside of the home is not always available due to the cost of mobile data, mobile plans or top-ups after reaching the data limit. Therefore, online services that can be accessed with zero-rated data can be hugely beneficial for this group in using governmental and non-governmental services.

Digital skills training is often only in English

A lack of proficiency in the English language is identified as the longer-term barrier of digital inclusion for this group. Most digital skills training is provided in English, which creates a barrier for this group to improve their digital skills. There is evidence that digital skills training provided in ethnic languages facilitates the process of acquiring digital skills independent of English proficiency. As a result, the dual approach of improving English proficiency and digital skills in ethnic languages concurrently is worth exploring as it might reduce the time of this group staying digitally excluded.

Education attainment and English language proficiency

Both a higher attainment in education and English language proficiency seem to lead to better digital inclusion.

For former refugees that pursued or are pursuing higher education in NZ, whether immediately or at a later stage of the settlement journey, there is evidence that their digital inclusion position improves significantly, especially in the skills area. This is enabled by their foundational English language proficiency.

For former refugees who have higher education backgrounds from overseas but lack English proficiency, their digital inclusion position is affected.

The same patterns are observed in the migrant group of this research.

Women in this group are at greater risk of digital exclusion

Former refugees and marginalised migrants who are women are at greater risk of digital exclusion. This is due to a lack of digital skills, access, and opportunities to attend training classes, mainly because of domestic care-giving duties, followed by injuries and illnesses. Low confidence is also an issue for some. This calls for additional and targeted support to create conditions for women to participate in digital skills training.

The need to use leverages for digital skills betterment

Once this group is aware of what could be achieved with digital technologies, the majority has the motivation and trust to use the technologies and take advantage of the social and economic benefits created by digital technologies. Social networks are the most trusted sources and therefore are best placed as intermediaries to facilitate the uplifting of digital skills and adoption of digital technologies — especially for those unaware of the opportunities.

Smartphone ownership is prevalent for this group, although not for everyone initially. There is a great opportunity to design smartphone-specific digital skills training as a starting point before progressing to more complex digital skills training on larger devices such as laptops. This might also help create confidence that aids the learning process.

9.2. Limitations

The insights in this report should not be applied to the following groups who had low or no participation:

• migrants with work visas from the humanitarian sub-stream
• migrants with residence visas from the parent category
• convention refugees
• skilled migrants (out of scope of this research).

9.3. Recommendations

The recommendations below are based on research findings, not government policy recommendations.

Opportunities to solve the access issues

To help solve the access issues, measures that would help include providing:

• devices such as laptops through different finance options and internet connections where it has been evaluated as an effective approach. The Ministry of Education’s Equitable Digital Access programme is an example of a successful approach
• zero-rated data to access key online services including essential government and non-government services
• community spaces such as public libraries and places of worship where digital skills training and device stations can be accessed.

Opportunities to solve the skills issues

To help solve the skills issues, measures that would help include providing:

• digital skills training in ethnic languages through trusted intermediaries to reduce the time that former refugees and marginalised migrants stay digitally excluded
• targeted and holistic support for women in ethnic communities, especially around domestic care-giving duties so they can attend training classes
• digital skills training with clear achievement levels so that it’s effective and empowering, for example, smartphone-specific digital skills training as a starting point before progressing to more complex digital skills training on larger devices such as laptops
• focused training on the top 3 digital skills areas identified as important for this group: online transaction skills, online safety and security skills, and skills to handle online information and content. This should include training on accessing key online services such as MyMSD, myIR, an online immigration account, and online banking.

Other considerations

To help increase the digital inclusion of former refugees and marginalised migrants settling in NZ, consider:

• continuing to prioritise English language proficiency training
• making resources available in ethnic languages online, especially for key services
• making digital inclusion training part of the resettlement programme for former refugees and marginalised migrants with ESL
• more investment in increasing digital inclusion support for the first years of settlement
• using longitudinal studies to understand the impact of early digital in 3 to 5 of settlement
• using longitudinal studies to understand the impact of early digital inclusion support on settlement outcomes
• measuring and tracking the digital inclusion position of this group in the context of their settlement and settlement outcomes in NZ.

10. Conclusion

This UX research sets out to understand how digitally included former refugees and marginalised migrants are. It does this by understanding the digital inclusion barriers and enablers in the context of the settlement journey for this group in Aotearoa New Zealand at these time periods — the first 3 months and first 3 years.

For the majority of this group, there is not much progress in their digital inclusion when comparing the first 3 months and first 3 years of settlement periods. However, there is a sense of improvement of digital inclusion for those who settle in NZ for a longer time — for example, more than 10 years.

This creates an opportunity to accelerate this group’s digital inclusion by addressing the access and skills elements early on in their settlement journey.

Lack of access to digital devices and unlimited home internet, and low digital skills are the 2 main elements that prevent former refugees and marginalised migrants from achieving digital inclusion. This is made worse by lower English language proficiency, cultural barriers, and lower socio-economic conditions. These factors create challenges to accessing key services online, which is crucial for their settlement and independence.

Social networks such as volunteers, settlement workers, community and family members are the most trusted source, followed by official government channels and websites. Therefore, these networks should be further utilised, and channels and websites should be designed inclusively to help improve this group’s digital inclusion.

More importantly, most former refugees and marginalised migrants have the motivation and trust to take advantage of the social and economic benefits created by digital technologies — they just need the opportunities and conditions created for them to do so.

I’m coming from overseas, you teach me English, and I learn this language, and I work here, I pay tax, I help the government. So I’m not going to be useless, I will be useful.

When you teach me math plus English, I will be more useful. I can do something greater than ever.

When you teach me computers, so I’ve got the basics of IT, English and math. I will be an expert in the future and I will help New Zealand to grow faster and faster.

11. Next steps

In 2022, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) will use sector meetings to engage with key stakeholders and non-governmental organisations. These meetings will consider this UX report’s findings and make sure that organisations focusing on digital inclusion in NZ have its information.

The report will also be shared with ministers and inform advice and decisions on the government’s approach to increasing digital inclusion.

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UNHCR. (2018, August 31). ‘‘Refugees’ and ‘Migrants’ — Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)’. Refworld. https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e81c0d4.html

Wihlborg, E., Kaharevic, A., Kulanovic, A., and Elg, M. (2021). ‘Digital inclusion in a disadvantaged Swedish suburb — Trust and participation to form Quality of Government’. Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, (pp. 2389–2398), http://hdl.handle.net/10125/70905

Zewdie, H. N. (2017). ‘IT Strategic considerations regarding refugees and asylum seekers’. (PDF, 534 KB). https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1078561/FULLTEXT01.pdf 

13. Appendices

13.1. Appendix 1

Interview guide

This interview guide should be used as a general guidance and reference point throughout the session as it is more important to let the conversation flow.

a. Introduction

About today’s session

Hi [participant’s name and support person], thanks for taking your time to do this research with us. My name is ... and I will be running the interview today. This is [notetaker’s name] and they will be taking notes in the background, so I can focus talking to you.

We are doing some research work with communities like you to understand your story and perspectives about the use of digital technologies since you come to New Zealand. (You might have read some background information about the research project.)

[Pause.] Do you have any questions before I give you a quick overview of what we’ll be doing today?

A quick summary of what we will be doing today:

• I will interview you for about 60 to 90 minutes with the list of questions I have. Think about this more like a chat to your friends or family.
• Your safety and comfort are priority, so you don’t have to answer questions you don’t want to.
• If you want to have a break or end the interview any time, please let me know.
• I am interested in your most honest feelings, thoughts, and experience about what worked and didn’t work for you when it comes to your usage of digital tools and technology throughout your journey of coming and settling in NZ.
• Please be honest and candid and don’t worry about offending me. There are no right or wrong answers.
• All your information and what we discuss today is safe with me. Everything will be anonymised, so your identity is protected.
• I might not be able to answer all your questions during the session, but I will direct them to the right person who can address your questions.

[Pause.] Do you have any questions about what I just talked about?

Recording:

• Today, I want to record our conversation, so I can go back and analyse it together with other interviews. The audio files are kept secure and only I and the project team have access to it. Are you happy for me to record it?

Questions from participants:

• Do you have any questions for me?

Consent form:

• Lastly, this is the consent form for you to sign. It covers everything that we just talked about. First part is… Second part is…
• Do you have any questions about this form?

[Press recording.]

b. Questions

About you

1. Tell me a bit about you: [Demographic questions.]

• Which country are you from?
• What language do you speak?
• When did you first arrive in NZ? How long have you been in NZ?
• How did you come to NZ? What visa were you on when you first came to NZ?
• How old are you?
• Where do you live? How do you find your neighbourhood?
• What gender do you identify yourself as? (Male / Female / Non-binary)
• Tell me about your relationship status (Are you married / divorced / widowed / and so on?)
• Do you have a qualification? If yes, tell me more.
• Do you work? If yes, what do you do?
• Tell me about how you spend your day during the week.
• Tell me a bit more about your family: children, parents, friends, pets?

Theme: digital inclusion

Your current state of digital inclusion (goals and motivations, digital technology use, internet access, trust.) (Interviewees do not have to answer questions if they do not want to.)

2. Which electronic or digital devices do you use in your daily life? [Activity 1 — Pick the devices.]

• 2.1 Tick the devices that you use every day.

3. What type of internet connection do you have? If yes / no, tell me more. [Activity 2 — Pick how you connect to the internet.]

4. What do you usually use your device for?

5. About services (immigration, tax, banking, benefits, housing, and so on) that can only be accessed digitally, how does this affect you? In what way? Why?

6. What do you like about doing things digitally [refer to their activities]? Why?

7. What don’t you like about doing things digitally? Why?

8. How much do you trust about doing things digitally? Why?

9. How do you know which websites / information to trust?

10. Tell me some of the main goals you want to achieve in your new life in NZ.

Theme: after the first 3 months in NZ

Your first arrival in NZ experience: think about your first 3 months in NZ (core needs: housing, employment, education, health, and so on).

You mentioned you arrived in NZ in [mm / yyyy], tell me a bit more.

11. Did you come here alone or with your family?

12. Did you know anyone before you came here?

13. Where did you stay in your first 3 months?

14. Did you have any digital devices with you? If yes, what were they?

15. Did you have access to the internet? How? Where?

16. What did you use your digital device [refer to their device] for?

17. What difficulty did you face when using your device to do [refer to their answer for 16]?

18. What support / help did you receive to solve those difficulties?

19. [If they have no digital device or don’t know how to use one.] What were some of the main activities that you did to set up your life in NZ / resettlement city / town in the first 3 months?

20. How did you get them done? (In person, online, over phone, and so on.) Why? Which way did you prefer?

21. Which activities did you have difficulty getting done? Why?

22. What help did you receive?

23. If you could do it [refer to their mentioned activities] again today, what would you do differently? Why?

Theme: after the first 3 years in NZ

Your settlement journey — now fast-forward to 3 years after your first arrival in NZ. [Remind participant about personal questions and they do not have to answer any questions if they do not want to.]

24. What were some of the main activities that you did to help you settle in NZ in the first 3 years? How did they change?

25. How did you complete those activities? Online or offline? On which device?

26. What else did you use your device for? What did you find difficult while getting your activities done? (Focus on barriers and challenges, pain points.)

27. How did you interact with organisation and government agencies? (Using your device compared to other ways like face to face or a phone call.) What was your preference?

28. Did you try to get things done digitally back then? Tell me more.

29. What stopped you from doing more things digitally?

30. Did you get any help to use your devices to get things done online? From whom? What service or support didn’t work for you? Why?

Theme: Current digital capability

31. Activity 3 — digital capabilities task list.

• 31.1. Tick the task you do not know how to do but really want to learn how to do it.
• 31.2. Of those, dot the top 3 tasks that you really want to be able to do.

Theme: Opportunities

• If you can pick only one thing for yourself to focus and improve on, what would that be? Why?

c. Wrap-up

Thank you for sharing your story and experience. I really appreciate it.

• Do you have any questions for me?
• ‘Here is the …’
• Hand over koha grocery voucher.
• See them out.
• Write a quick summary.
• Prep for next session.

13.2. Appendix 2

• Activity 1 worksheet — Pick the devices (Word, 35KB).

13.3. Appendix 3

• Activity 2 worksheet — Internet connection (Word, 34KB).

13.4. Appendix 4

• Activity 3 — Digital skills (Word, 137KB).

13.5. Appendix 5

Search summary

Resources

The resources used for this search were:

• Ebscohost database
• Emerald
• Taylor & Francis
• NZResearch
• Index New Zealand.

Keywords

The keywords used in various combinations for this research were the following:

Ebscohost database:

• digital divide
• digital inclusion
• digital inequality
• ENGLISH as a foreign language
• GOVERNMENT policy
• IMMIGRANTS
• INFORMATION & communication technologies
• ICT access
• ICT usage
• INFORMATION technology
• internet use
• Migrants
• POLITICAL refugees
• REFUGEES
• REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
• Social exclusion
• SOCIAL INCLUSION
• SOCIAL integration
• SOCIAL marginality
• SOCIAL order

EMERALD:

• Cross-cultural issues
• Digital divide
• digital inclusion
• Refugee migrants
• refugees
• Social inclusion

Taylor & Francis:

• digital skills
• integration
• migrants
• refugees
• social inclusion
• technological mediation
• EAL (English as an Additional Language)

NZResearch:

• digital inclusion
• digital exclusion
• refugees digital
• immigrants digital
• inclusion migrants
• inclusion immigrants
• exclusion immigrants
• exclusion migrants

Index New Zealand:

• digital inclusion
• digital exclusion
• refugees
• migrants
• immigrants
• English as the second language.

Searched as single words or terms, and combinations of words and terms.