Migration in the Digital Age

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Considers how the smartphone has transformed the migration experience by examining the various interconnections between mobile media and human mobilities. Reveals how media technologies and human mobility shape one another and exposes the interplay between the social and technological affordances in contemporary migration. 31 b&w, 16 col. illus. Exploring how mobile media technologies are reshaping migration, this book focuses on the Central American migrant journey to the United States—one of the world’s largest migratory corridors. It traces how smartphones influence decisions to migrate, shape the journey itself, and mediate life in shelters and diasporic communities. “A much-needed exploration of the smartphone’s role in the Central American migration experience, revealing its dual function as both a tool of connection and a source of vulnerability. Through captivating ethnographic insights, the author shows how smartphones serve as lifelines, providing emotional and social support while also exposing migrants to increased surveillance.” Saskia Witteborn, PhD, professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong. “Empirically rich, theoretically generative, and ethically grounded, this reflexive, agency-centric ethnography offers a decolonial, feminist critique of techno-solutionism and disruption while centering migrants as knowledge producers and digital agents of survival and care. By tracing how smartphones are used ambivalently to mediate movement, connectivity, intimacies, and surveillance, Ferris-Dobles re-humanizes people on the move.” Koen Leurs, associate professor in gender, media and migration, Department of Media and Culture, Utrecht University, Netherlands. “The exploration of “hybrid migration,” with its focus on how technology permeates the entire process of human migration on both the intimate/micro and the infrastructural/macro levels, advances critical theoretical insight while offering a starting point for discussions about policy and design considerations in the lives of migrants and refugees.” Steve Jones, PhD, distinguished professor of communication, University of Illinois Chicago, USA. Michele Ferris-Dobles is a professor and researcher in media and communication at the University of Costa Rica, Central America. Explores how mobile media has changed the migration experience, focusing on Central American migration to the United States, which represents the largest migratory corridor in the world. The book analyzes the socio-technical affordances of smartphones and examines the communication practices that migrants engage in while utilizing mobile media. It demonstrates the mutual influence between media technologies and human mobility. The primary objective is to illustrate, through firsthand accounts from migrants, how technology has transformed migration trends and experiences, as well as how the migrant community has shaped the utilization of technology. A key contribution of this work is highlighting the agency and creativity that migrants exercise when interacting with media technology, as they establish their own practices and rituals to meet their needs. Through a diverse range of ethnographic data, interviews, maps, and images, it demonstrates that contemporary migration is a mediated experience. The narrative begins by exploring how smartphones influence and shape the decision to migrate, the journey itself, experiences during transit and navigation, as well as life in migrant shelters and within the diaspora.

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Pagina's: 170, Hardcover, Intellect Books - IPSUK