Connected migrants : how digital technology is becoming a priority

Before the advent of new infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­no­lo­gies (ICT), moving abroad meant cut­ting off from a per­son’s roots and dis­tan­cing from fami­ly, without always suc­cee­ding in inte­gra­ting into the host coun­try. But the arri­val of mobile phones, the Inter­net, apps and online ser­vices in the 1990s and 2000s has signi­fi­cant­ly trans­for­med the lives of mobile people and the stu­dy of migra­tion phe­no­me­na. “With the advent of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies, I wan­ted to show that a new type of migrant was emer­ging – that of the connec­ted migrant,” explains Dana Dimi­nes­cu, socio­lo­gist, lec­tu­rer and resear­cher at Télé­com Paris (IP Paris) and direc­tor of DiasporaLab.

With the emer­gence of digi­tal tools, migrants have become connec­ted to tech­no­lo­gy. Using What­sApp, Snap­chat, Ins­ta­gram or Tik­Tok, they can stay in touch with their fami­lies, who may be loca­ted more than 10,000 km away¹. Tele­phones, digi­tal ser­vices and social net­works mean they can be rea­ched eve­ry day, anyw­here in the world. Migrants car­ry their “home” in their pocket, in their flat or even when out wal­king in the city.

To demons­trate the emer­gence of the “connec­ted migrant”, Dana Dimi­nes­cu laid the foun­da­tions for a new approach to the stu­dy of migra­tion with her Dia­spo­ra­Lab pro­gramme. “This involves the stu­dy of migra­tion in rela­tion to ICT, but it is also a sub-field of digi­tal socio­lo­gy². A migrant equip­ped with digi­tal tools leaves traces. In 2003, I wrote an epis­te­mo­lo­gi­cal mani­fes­to on digi­tal migra­tion stu­dies, which I have been stu­dying for some twen­ty years.” The pro­gramme involves fin­ding digi­tal traces of dif­ferent aspects of migrants’ lives, while com­bi­ning them with a more tra­di­tio­nal metho­do­lo­gy. To do this, the resear­cher deci­ded to use semi-auto­ma­tic algo­rithms. After the data col­lec­ted by the algo­rithm has been gathe­red, the resear­chers review it them­selves to ana­lyse it more tho­rough­ly. “This choice was time-consu­ming, but it allo­wed us to obtain a much more control­led final corpus.”

Connec­ted migrants use new tech­no­lo­gies to navi­gate bet­ween dif­ferent envi­ron­ments : from the coun­try of emi­gra­tion to the coun­try of immi­gra­tion, and the jour­ney bet­ween the two. Access to digi­tal ser­vices, a bank card and a bio­me­tric pas­sport faci­li­tate their belon­ging to dif­ferent worlds : civil ins­ti­tu­tions, fami­ly net­works, pro­fes­sio­nal net­works, friend­ship net­works³ and so on. “The Inter­net has been an excellent tool for dia­spo­ras, making it easier for migrants to come toge­ther, but the net­work has also crea­ted com­mu­ni­ty bubbles,” she explains. “Some­times migrants seek to break free from their fami­ly circle, but tele­com­mu­ni­ca­tions become a form of remote control for the family.”

Digi­tal migra­tion stu­dies also seek to bet­ter unders­tand the habits and prac­tices of cer­tain migrant groups, beyond com­mon mis­con­cep­tions. “Migrants are pro­fi­cient in com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools. If there is a divide, it lies in navi­ga­ting admi­nis­tra­tive plat­forms. Fur­ther­more, one of their prio­ri­ties when tra­vel­ling to ano­ther coun­try is to buy a phone. They often have seve­ral, which are both vital tools and aids to inte­gra­tion.” As the resear­cher points out, “what is inter­es­ting about digi­tal socio­lo­gy is that we don’t work on what people say, but on what they do.” This idea is well illus­tra­ted by a stu­dy co-autho­red by the resear­cher and publi­shed in 2010⁴.

The work under­mines the pre­con­cep­tion that most migrants trans­fer money pri­ma­ri­ly to their fami­lies, and shows ins­tead that they most often want to retain control over their finan­cial trans­fers. “When we exa­mine migrants’ data in detail, we see that they pri­ma­ri­ly send money to them­selves. When we dig dee­per through qua­li­ta­tive inter­views, they explain that they send money to them­selves to main­tain a form of pre­sence in their coun­try, but also to par­ti­ci­pate in acti­vi­ties from a dis­tance, without giving others power over their money.”

There is a gap in the research, name­ly the fai­lure to take into account the emo­tions of the hosts.

In 2015, the Sin­ga asso­cia­tion crea­ted Calm, a plat­form for connec­ting refu­gees with indi­vi­duals willing to wel­come them into their homes⁵. Research based on this plat­form has shed light on expres­sions of hos­pi­ta­li­ty online and the role of digi­tal tools in wel­co­ming migrants. Howe­ver, Dana Dimi­nes­cu stresses the impor­tance of remai­ning atten­tive to the emo­tions of those who wel­come migrants, which are often over­sha­do­wed by the abun­dance of data col­lec­ted. “I was very moved wor­king on the data from the SINGA plat­form, which I saw come into being and evolve. We col­lec­ted 20,000 mes­sages and regis­tra­tions from French people who wan­ted to offer shel­ter or a home to refu­gees.” This stu­dy the­re­fore revea­led a short­co­ming, name­ly the fai­lure to take into account the emo­tions of those pro­vi­ding shel­ter in the research. “The French people said why they wan­ted to host, and each had a sto­ry, some­times a real­ly moving one. It can be a shame to bury emo­tion under too much digi­tal technology.”

In this regard, the resear­cher co-signed with artist Fili­pê Vilas-Boas an artis­tic work ins­tal­led at the Natio­nal Museum of Immi­gra­tion His­to­ry since June 2023 and crea­ted by Mickaël Bou­hier⁶. When visi­tors hold out their hands in front of the art­work, one of the 12,000 mes­sages of hos­pi­ta­li­ty from French people explai­ning why they wan­ted to host refu­gees via the CALM plat­form is dis­played in the palms of their hands.

In conclu­sion, digi­tal tech­no­lo­gy is trans­for­ming migra­tion. It offers oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mu­ni­ca­tion and mutual sup­port but also makes people more vul­ne­rable to control and tra­cking. The rise of AI in our socie­ty also raises new ques­tions. As the resear­cher points out, it spreads a lot of fake news and rein­forces com­mu­ni­ty bubbles. More broad­ly, the resear­cher is stu­dying the influence of social media on immi­grants’ return to their coun­tries. “They some­times deve­lop a uto­pian nar­ra­tive of return, a lit­tle nos­tal­gic, a lit­tle heroic, anti-migra­tion pro­ject of their parents.” Howe­ver, “we do not yet know what AI will bring in terms of know-how and prac­tices in gene­ral,” she adds. In any case, one thing is cer­tain : migra­tion is now inse­pa­rable from digi­tal technology.

Lucille Caliman