Total number of interviewees 52 Female : Male 11 : 41 Country of origin Syria: Country of residence 20 Egypt: 16 Iran: 16 Germany: 16 Turkey: US: 9 6 France: 3 NL: 4 UK: 3 Czech Rep: 3 Tunisia: 2 Jordan: 2 Canada: 2 Other: Professional background 2 Journalist: 15 Civil Society/Human Rights: Digital Tech: 26 11 Respondents were interviewed from September 2018 to June 2019 after a recruitment through “snowball sampling”, building on established contacts of the researcher, funding and host organization (Open Technology Fund and Hivos, respectively). Respondents were selected with the goal of obtaining a diverse sample of interviewees in terms of gender, host country, organizational background, type of activity, and recognition. Nevertheless, the ultimate participation of respondents was determined by the ability—or lack thereof—to secure an introduction and build trust. Despite significant time and effort spent creating a network of supporters around the project, not all contacts who were approached for an interview agreed to participate. Interviews proceeded on the basis of a semi-structured guideline, leaving room for additional questions. Topics included respondent’s reasons for emigration, current activities, links to home country, situation in host country, experienced threats, digital security practices, risk perceptions, and digital security needs. All interviews were transcribed, partly translated into English, and analyzed to assess the emergence of common themes. The coding of the material was also guided by the basic questions and goals of the project. In addition, the research and initial findings were discussed with a number of digital security experts and trainers to further contextualize and corroborate results. 8