‘Without technology we’d be very stuck’: Ageing migrants’ differential (im)mobile practices during a lockdown

Abstract

Ubiquitous mobile communication technologies have played an integral role in the way people navigated forced physical immobilities produced through restrictive measures during a pandemic. This paper critically investigates how 15 ageing people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Victoria, Australia used a range of digital communication technologies and online platforms to cope during the 2020 lockdown. The study deploys the mobilities lens (Urry, 2007) in analysing a data set based on conducting remote and in-depth interviewing. It foregrounds how everyday and multi-scalar digital behaviours afford cultural and social connectedness, reflecting diverse forms of care practices. However, forced immobile practices emerged as shaped by disproportionate network capital. In sum, this study puts forward a nuanced perspective in understanding the scales and textures of (im)mobile practices of ageing migrants during a lockdown in Australia.

Digital media, ageing and faith: Older Sri Lankan migrants in Australia and their digital articulations of transnational religion

“…In contrast, recent scholarship on transnational families and the practices of 'digital kinning' and 'digital homing' Wilding et al, 2022) demonstrate that older adults, both migrant and nonmigrant, are keen to benefit from the connectedness enabled by digital media when their social and support networks are dispersed across distance (e.g. Ahlin, 2018;Cabalquinto, 2018Cabalquinto, , 2022Sinanan & Hjorth,2018;Wilding et al, 2020;Wilding & Baldassar, 2018;Wilding et al, 2022). In this paper, we explore how the role of digital media within transnational families and migrant communities is replicated in another domain, that of religion and spirituality.…”

“…A growing body of research on transnational religion (Ebaugh & Chafetz, 2000; Khosravi, 2010; Mazumdar & Mazumdar, 2009; Valentine et al., 2013; Vásquez & Knott, 2014) emphasizes the role of digital tools in both connecting migrants to places of worship around the world (Habarakada & Shin, 2018; Vásquez, 2020), and also creating new opportunities to plan for the next life (Sampaio, 2020). However, given the relative exclusion of older adults from discussions on technological narratives, it is in the transnational family scholarship where the role of digital media in ageing lives has been a central thread of inquiry, examined through lenses of ageing, digital media use, migration, and mobility (Ahmed, 2014; Cabalquinto, 2022; Ho, 2014; Madianou & Miller, 2012; Merla & Baldassar, 2010; Ponzanesi, 2020; Sinanan & Hjorth, 2018 ; Wilding et al., 2022), including our previous research that focused on affect and emotions (Baldassar & Wilding, 2020; Wilding, 2018; Wilding et al, 2020). These bodies of research provide complementing inquiries to shape a discussion on religion, ageing, migration, and digital media use.…”

“…This paper offers insights into how the lives of older migrant adults were already shaped through digital media practices pre-pandemic and the embedded nature of these technological practices as relational to processes of ageing, processes that have accelerated and expanded during the pandemic (e.g. Cabalquinto, 2022).…”

Researching (im)mobile lives during a lockdown: Reconceptualizing remote interviews as field events

“…To remedy barriers in digital communication, older migrants seek the assistance of family members and peers (Worrell, 2021), such as using technologies to access a range of information (Selwyn et al, 2016). This has also been the case for older migrants who sought the support of their family members in overcoming disconnectivity due to limited technological capacities during the pandemic (Cabalquinto, 2022a(Cabalquinto, , 2022c. Nevertheless, as will be shown in this study, the possibilities and limits of remote interviews among older migrants were shaped by the influences of social and technological factors on field events.…”

“…This article underscores the application of technologically mediated research methods in the study of the digital practices of older adults from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020−2021. We investigate remote interviewing that the first author deployed to study how older adults in Victoria, Australia utilized mobile devices and online platforms to sustain their social lives while following government-directed stay-at-home orders (Cabalquinto, 2022a(Cabalquinto, , 2022c. By mapping the integral role of digital technologies in data collection, this article inquires: What is the role of digital devices and online platforms in shaping the processes and outcomes of remote interviewing?…”