Amy Rhoades

[Commentary] According to the International Telecommunications Union, there were more than 7 billion mobile cellular subscriptions by the end of 2015, a significant increase from 738 million in 2000. Moreover, the global proportion of the population covered by a 2G mobile-cellular network grew from 58% in 2001 to 95% in 2015, primarily in developing countries; and it is the developing world – driven by the increased affordability of devices – that will lead most of the growth in global smartphone adoption, reaching 63% by the end of the decade with an expected increase of 2.9 billion smartphone connections by 2020 (GSMA). Thanks to a ‘mobile first’ development trajectory, many innovations respond to the needs of an increasingly migratory population such as multi-SIM card phones, mobile money transfers, and low-value recharges.

“Sometimes Europeans see that we have good phones and ask, ‘Why does a refugee have a phone?’ These phones are like our visas. If we lose our phones, we lose our lives.”

[Amy Rhoades is the Community Engagement Programme Manager for the International Organization for Migration]