Once a refugee: selfie activism, visualized citizenship and the space of appearance

ABSTRACT

This article examines the social media campaign “Once I was a refugee” by former refugees as a response to the increasingly hostile political climate in Finland against refugees. With selfie activism, the campaign expanded the “space of appearance” and introduced new voice and visuality to the public debate. The case depicts politics of claiming citizenship and social value through self-presentation to counter views of refugees as economic burden, noncitizens, and surplus humanity. The empirical material is based on analysis of the Facebook and Twitter campaign and interviews with the participants. It is argued that selfie activism may occasionally, through new voice and visibility, expand the space of appearance and contribute to the rise of affective or counter-publics that can come together and make use of digital media for political action. However, the case also reveals how difficult it is to speak from a refugee position without being drawn into the discourse of deservingness.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The interviews with the participants were conducted face-to-face or by phone, depending on what suited the participants best. Initially, the participants were contacted by e-mail or through Facebook Messenger. The interviews lasted from 30 minutes to an hour. The interviews have been anonymized and the participants are referred to in terms of gender and age.

2. Images included single pictures but also compilations of multiple images posted as one image and images with additional texts and graphics. The figure of 175 images includes compilations counted as one image. Images posted by the moderators concerning news and events around the campaign were not included in the analysis.

3. In September 2015, more than 10,000 people arrived in Finland seeking asylum. In the context of Finland, this was exceptional, as the average amount of asylum seekers in Finland had been around 3,000–5,000 in a year (http://migri.fi/arkisto).

4. The campaign was covered in several newspapers, magazines, and television programs during September and October 2015: Nyt-liite HS7.9. Ilta- Sanomat 7.9., Huvudstadsbladet 7.9., MTV 7.9. Finland Today 8.9., Radio Nova 9.9., YLE.fi 11.9., Me Naiset 11.9., YLE 13.9., Sveriges Radio 15.9., Lääkärilehti 16.10.

5. In these plans, voiced in anti-immigrant forum, Hommaforum, one member suggests that they could create memes with images of refugees who have committed crimes and then attach their crimes and sentences to the images, along with the hashtag #Once I was a refugee (https://reijaharkonen.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/ennenolinpakolainen.jpg).

6. These discussions appear in forums that host anti-immigrant debates, such as politically oriented Hommaforum and originally the forum of a magazine for parents of newborn babies called Vauva.fi, which has become famous for racist and sexist debates (https://www.vauva.fi/keskustelu/4577958/ketju/ennen_olin_pakolainen).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [295948] and the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation [2016].