Social media, youth (im)mobilities, and the risks of connectivity in urban Somaliland

Abstract

Young people in cities in the Horn of Africa engage with diasporic mobility through social media on a daily basis. Apparent opportunities on these platforms both reflect and shape ideas about life in the diaspora, potential migration, and social mobility. These connections also bring risks of scamming, extortion and misinformation that contribute to the involuntary immobility of those who wish to move for economic or educational opportunities. Drawing from ‘screen-shot elicitation’ group interviews with young men in Hargeisa (Somaliland) and digital ethnographic investigation of social media content gathered before, during and after these sessions, this article argues that transnational flows of mobility-related information need to be studied from the perspective of people within contexts commonly understood as ‘sources’ of south-north migration, but beyond policy-orientated questions about the impact of ICTs on rates of migration. Emphasising the highly ambivalent role played by social media in shaping aspirations and experiences of youth (im)mobility, this approach brings into view a wider range of socially significant online practices. These include the transnational assemblage of elaborate digital scamming techniques, as well as multiple other types of mobility-focused user-generated content that circulate in transnational Somali social (media) networks.

Keywords:

• Social media
• migration
• ICTs
• cyber-crime
• immobility
• Somaliland
• Somalia

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Cedric Barnes, Anna Rowett, Hannah Stogdon and Magnus Taylor at RVI, and Freddie Carver for our collaboration that put this project into motion. Thanks are also owed the Hargeisa-based photographer and visual artist Mustafe Saeed and staff at Shaqodoon and HarHub for their assistance with the screenshot elicitation group interviews. I am grateful to all of the participants who gave their time and insights in these sessions. Mahad Wasuge/Tayo Translations did excellent work in transcribing and translating the interviews, while Abdirahman Ahmed and Nimo-Ilhan Ahmed Ali gave valuable feedback on an earlier version of the article.

Notes

1 [ANON]

2 Each participant received $50 for their time over the course of the interviews and screenshotting.

3 The research was approved by King's College London's ethical review board (project no. 14607).

4 All participant names are aliases.

5 An alias.

6 I subsequently met staff of the BBC Somali Service in London (February 2020) and drew their attention to this particular account. They indicated that this is a recurring problem.

7 Increased internet access allows scammers to penetrate ever wider social networks, and target communities in low/middle-income countries globally (BBC 2019). Local reporting also suggests that Somalia itself has been affected by international pyramid schemes and that millions of dollars are leaving the country through (online) Forex trading scams (VOA 2020).

8 http://www.unasom.org/

9 https://wfuna.org/ (accessed 21 May 2020)

10 https://www.facebook.com/unasom.org/posts/609745869632536

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article was funded by the Rift Valley Institute through the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) programme.