Five Questions for Digital Migration Studies: Learning From Digital Connectivity and Forced Migration In(to) Europe

Abstract

This Special Collection "Forced migration and digital connectivity in(to) Europe" historicizes, contextualizes, empirically grounds, and conceptually reflects on the impact of digital technologies on forced migration. In this introductory essay, we elaborate digital migration as a developing field of research. Taking the exceptional attention for digital mediation within the recent so-called "European refugee crisis" as a starting point, we reflect on the main conceptual, methodological and ethical challenges for this emerging field and how it is taking shape through interdisciplinary dialogues and in interaction with policy and public debate. Our discussion is organized around five central questions: (1) Why Europe? (2) Where are the field and focus of digital migration studies? (3) Where is the human in digital migration? (4) Where is the political in digital migration? and (5) How can we de-center Europe in digital migration studies? Alongside establishing common ground between various communities of scholarship, we plea for non-digital-media-centric-ness and foreground a commitment toward social change, equity and social justice.

News from the Levant: A Qualitative Research on the Role of Social Media in Syrian Diaspora

“…Second, one may wonder to what extent the interviews are biased toward a Western interpretation of properties and effects related to social media. In this sense, the use of bottom-up stories, which are able to balance the top-down vision of media scholars, is only a first step with respect to the main goal of "decentering" the European view in migration studies (Leurs & Smets, 2018), or, even more broadly speaking, "de-Westernizing" media studies as a whole (see Park & Curran, 2000). When one considers the relevance of immigration-related issues in public debate, this issue deserves greater attention in the future.…”

The politics of big borders: Data (in)justice and the governance of refugees

“…This is particularly pertinent as such digital infrastructure, like borders themselves, are polysemic and double-edged. They afford agency within migratory routes yet open up further paths of surveillance and exploitation (Latonero and Kift 2018;Gillespie et al, 2018;Leurs and Smets, 2018). We are, therefore, confronted with a complex and comprehensive border regime that encompasses a range of technologies, locations and practices that cannot be reduced to any one actor or directional gaze.…”

Popular Communications in the Populist Political Moment: Editorial Introduction to Special Issue 'Refugee Socialities and the Media'

“…The final two articles in the volume contribute to the emerging field of "digital migration studies" (Leurs & Smets, 2018) in their focus on digital networked technologies as used in zones of safety to convey identification and solidarity with refugees (in Kaarina Nikunen's article on selfie activism) and in zones of danger and displacement by refugees themselves (in Mirjam Twigt's article on media in the everyday lives of Iraqi dwellers in Jordan).…”