Empowering experiences of digitally mediated flows of information for connected migrants on the move

Creative Commons License

Şanlıer Yüksel Ö. İ.

JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES, cilt.48, sa.8, ss.1838-1855, 2022 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 48 Sayı: 8
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/1369183x.2020.1796264
  • Dergi Adı: JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Periodicals Index Online, EBSCO Education Source, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Geobase, Index Islamicus, Political Science Complete, Public Affairs Index, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1838-1855
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Information precarity, temporary migrants, connected migrants, digital space of flows, empowerment, COMMUNICATION, REFUGEES, MIGRATION, MOBILITY
  • Çukurova Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Together with their precarious access to basic rights, Syrian refugees and other temporary migrants also face information precarity, a condition of information instability and insecurity. Although there is a growing literature parallel to the increase in the number of refugees and other temporary migrants, the extent to which digital communication helps them to cope with this kind of precarity still needs to be discussed. From this standpoint, in this paper, I discuss the role of information and communication technologies in the transnational lives of those migrants in Turkey while they are on the move, through the theoretical framework of connected migrants and how the digital space of flows accommodates affordances to overcome information precarity. Empirical findings reveal that use of information and communication technologies, e.g. smartphones and social media, not only provide migrants with transnational connections but also become a strategic tool for survival, especially for refugees and asylum seekers. Most migrants maintain transnational social bonds, either through phone calls or social media. Diasporic connections through social media and existing social capital in Turkey assist migrants to meet various needs.