The WDCD Refugee Challenge actually consists of five challenges! Each of the five briefs addresses a specific issue refugees encounter during the reception and acceptance procedure in the country where they have landed. The second brief asks What Design Can Do to foster personal development while waiting for asylum.
When refugees seeking asylum arrive in their host country, they are eager to start a new life. However, in most European countries, until asylum has been granted, refugees are limited in what they can do. Laws and lack of financial means often restrict asylum seekers in their possibilities to move around, to enter education, find work or engage in other activities.
There is often a lot of waiting during the asylum seeking process. This waiting causes great stress as the months go by, as refugees and their children are forced to kill time in shelters. This lost time could be used more effectively by starting the process of integrating into the new society. How can refugees continue to develop personally during this waiting period despite all the imposed limitations?
Or redesign the waiting
Limitations stimulate creativity because they focus the ever-exploring minds of designers. Creativity finds ways around obstacles such as laws that prohibit work, by designing activities that may not make money but give satisfaction, build reputation and generate appreciation. The waiting itself can also be redesigned to make it more purposeful and pleasurable, enabling people to make new friends and feel more in control and respected. Every human needs something meaningful to do. What can refugees do alone, together, and with others to enhance their social integration?
Download the full WDCD Refugee Challenge brief including background information and research material from refugeechallenge.unhcrideas.org and join the challenge.
Photo: UNHCR/Florian Rainer