Empowering or impeding return migration? ICT, mobile phones, and older migrants' communications with home

Alistair Hunter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In the last two decades, transnational social fields have been transformed by advances in information and communication technologies (ICT). Many scholars have noted the empowering effects of these technological advances for migrants. Drawing on the concept of return preparedness, it follows that ICT use should also empower prospective returnees, enabling them to be better informed and prepared for return. However, multi-sited ethnographic research with older North and West African men living in migrant worker hostels in France finds that ICT use – particularly mobile telephony –impedes return. In some instances, mobile phones serve to amplify the pressures on the men to provide financially for their stay-at-home relatives. In others, mobile phones reinforce attachments to France by facilitating networks of solidarity among hostel residents. Instead of returning definitively at retirement, many hostel residents choose a bi-residence strategy, dividing their time between France and countries of origin.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)485-502
JournalGlobal Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs
Volume15
Issue number4
Early online date20 Aug 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

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