Access to Information: Perspectives of Persian-Speaking Refugees in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area
Hafezefati, Leili (2025)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025090824512
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025090824512
Tiivistelmä
This thesis examines how Persian-speaking refugees in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area access information about social services and the challenges they face in doing so. Although refugee integration has been widely studied in Finland, their access to information remains an underexplored yet critical component of inclusion and autonomy. The study focuses on how structural, digital, and social barriers intersect to hinder refugees’ ability to find and use relevant information for navigating everyday life.
Using a qualitative approach, five in-depth interviews were conducted with refugees to examine their experiences with digital platforms, official communication channels, and informal information networks. The theoretical framework draws on access theory, information marginalisation, and the concept of cumulative disadvantage. Findings reveal that even when services are technically available, complicated language, digital inaccessibility, and lack of culturally appropriate support often prevent refugees from effectively engaging with them. The participants’ reliance on informal networks and community support reflects not passivity, but strategic coping in a situation of systemic exclusion.
The study concludes that access to information should be recognised as a right, not a privilege. Institutions must move beyond simply offering digital services and instead ensure that communication is clear, timely, multilingual, and empathetic. Closer cooperation with refugee communities and grassroots actors facilitates the building of trust and reducing inequality. Information systems can become more inclusive and promote genuine refugee participation in Finnish society by centring their voices and needs.
Using a qualitative approach, five in-depth interviews were conducted with refugees to examine their experiences with digital platforms, official communication channels, and informal information networks. The theoretical framework draws on access theory, information marginalisation, and the concept of cumulative disadvantage. Findings reveal that even when services are technically available, complicated language, digital inaccessibility, and lack of culturally appropriate support often prevent refugees from effectively engaging with them. The participants’ reliance on informal networks and community support reflects not passivity, but strategic coping in a situation of systemic exclusion.
The study concludes that access to information should be recognised as a right, not a privilege. Institutions must move beyond simply offering digital services and instead ensure that communication is clear, timely, multilingual, and empathetic. Closer cooperation with refugee communities and grassroots actors facilitates the building of trust and reducing inequality. Information systems can become more inclusive and promote genuine refugee participation in Finnish society by centring their voices and needs.