Digital Leisure and Aspirational Work among Venezuelan Refugee and Migrant Women in Brazil

Abstract

This chapter builds on a UNHCR Innovation Service project in partnership with Erasmus University Rotterdam, supported by the Government of Luxembourg, where we examined the opportunities afforded by digital leisure for Venezuelan refugees and migrants in northern Brazil. The project aimed to assess the ways in which refugees and migrants use digital media for entertainment and the possibilities of these uses for improved livelihoods. In this chapter, we focus on three women who participated in the project and their perspectives on content creation using digital media. The field work took place in late 2021 in two shelters in northwestern Brazil and involved in-depth interviews with fifteen participants, and a workshop on how to be a digital influencer. The analysis of these three cases presents different ways in which refugee and migrant women use digital media and their aspirations for a better life through content creation.