by Vana Alexopoulou

“Place Is Security And Space Is Freedom (Tuan)” Integration Of Migrants Via Artificial Intelligence In Media Production

by Vana Αlexopoulou, Media Production Specialist

One of the many challenges in a refugee’s everyday life is the process of integrating into a new environment. Digital media plays an essential role in helping migrants to become vital members of their host country. Furthermore, the ongoing migration flux has triggered the rapid development of media technology and digital applications to tackle the issue of refugee integration in Europe. (Alencar, 2017)

Social integration is fundamental for the personal development of the refugees, and not only. Migrants cannot continue their life journey without being a piece of the local’s society puzzle, without feeling familiar with the people around them. Furthermore, migration, especially for unaccompanied minors, is an emotionally complex process involving mediated experiences and expressions of emotions and affect. (Neag, Supa, 2020)

To provide a better future for unaccompanied refugee youth, ACS Athens has been offering the Youth-toYouth program, an educational and social integration project. Y2Y provides a meaningful, holistic and harmonious educational experience to unaccompanied refugee minors. The beauty of the program is that ACS Athens faculty and student volunteers act as mentors and teachers to the Y2Y students, and this is what enables successful and effective social integration.

The Media Studio of ACS Athens supports the Y2Y program and its participants with its technical expertise. The studio uses specific Artificial Intelligence tools for face recognition, in order to track faces. Once this process has been confirmed as accurate, immigrants’ facial characteristics are tracked, blurred, and hidden. This way, we keep their identities safe. From the very first moment that minors enter the school as Y2Y participants, they know that they are in a safe environment where they can learn, be creative, and behave like children of their age. The studio has also employed AI to provide creative tools for numerous media projects, helping these minors to be a part of the school’s society in an innovative and collaborative way. Thus, specific applications are used to transcribe students’ audio and/or video productions and turn voices into text. After confirming that the text is correct, subtitles are added to productions, making the audiovisual pieces accessible and easier to follow by non-native speakers. Finally, AI software can also be used for color correction, video auto-crop for social media, clarity of speech, voice isolation, etc.

Technology can help us democratize media in various aspects of modern life. Migrant youths of Y2Y have the opportunity, by using all the tools provided by the Media Studio, to be free and inventive in a safe and welcoming environment. After all, as the American-Chinese geographer, Yi-Fu Tuan says, “Place is security and Space is freedom” (Tuan:2001).

Bibliography Alencar, A. (2017) Refugee integration and social media: a local and experiential perspective, 1588) Neag A., Supa M (2020) Emotional practices of unaccompanied refugee youth on social media, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 23, Issue 5 Tuan, Y.F (2001) Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience