Abstract
‘Migration does not exist outside technological development, and technology is not developed outside the social-cultural and political domain of migration’ (p. 6). In this sentence is condensed the main motif that recurs within Digital Migration. Koen Leurs is driven by the need to explore, question, understand and establish digital migration studies as an emerging, interdisciplinary research topic. For although the landscape of migration studies and digital technologies is conspicuous and active, it often lacks the interdisciplinary nature that is at its core. Koen Leurs’ aim with this book is thus to affirm the possibility of seeking a dialogue, a shared ground in which to highlight the tensions of these different but converging fields, ‘to unpack the complex relationships between migration and technologies’ (p. 165).
In this regard, the reflections proposed on the ontological, epistemological, methodological, and ethical levels are particularly dense. Levels that might seem separate, but which show themselves to be interlinked, just as technology and migration are. Precisely for this reason, the proposal is that of a relational ontology: migration and technology are not ontologically separable, but it is their relationship that must be the object of scholarly inquiry, the interest must be placed on ‘how digital migration emerges in particular situated constellations’ (p. 6). This undoubtedly requires deeper reflection also on the epistemological level. In particular, the three major epistemological frameworks underlying digital migration studies are briefly taken up, but in such a way as to build bridges between them and reflect on the kind of knowledge produced or to be produced in this highly fluid field. And then, of course, the how-to-do it. As Leurs states, different approaches can be used in these studies depending on the contexts and objectives, but they all move within the two major continuums: ‘migrant-centric and non-migrant-centric research and digital-media-centric and not’ (p. 15). However, what researchers will necessarily have to consider are the ethical implications of their work and the kind of knowledge they produce. Ethics is relational and situated, because ‘ethics are to be fine-tuned on the basis of the particular requirements demanded by the context’ (p. 16) and, for this reason, is necessary a deeper reflection than just ‘do no harm’.
Having defined these stepping stones of digital migration studies, Leurs reviews the five main debates in the field, dedicating a chapter to each one: infrastructures, connections, representations, affects and emotions, and histories.
With his reflection on infrastructures, Leurs questions what is often accepted as the black-box, noting an emphasis ‘on top-down forms of infrastructuring’ (p. 43). Particularly interesting is the discussion of infrastructures as relations that enable the untangling of surveillance and classification processes and architectures, especially regarding mobile bodies and their being defined within data points. Connections is an analysis of the connected migrant and all the ambiguities and contradictions that characterise these practices, including information precarity and state repression. In this discussion, echoing other scholars, he brilliantly introduces the concept of translocality, which would account for the local, urban, national and transnational relationships that manage to shape the spaces in which migrants are embedded (p. 58). In the ‘Representations’ chapter Leurs makes an analysis of the clash between representation and self-representation of migrants as a form of empowerment. On one hand, information media, social media and the virtual reality regime, and on the other, repertoires of voice and digital identity as a performative act to bring one’s identity into the digital being (p. 95), and personal repertoires and digital archiving that act as a map to unravel one’s history.
The section on affects and emotions is the most provocative, prompting to approach migration not only in terms of vulnerability. A still underused lens that would shed light on the effects that interaction with digital technologies has on transnational relationships also in terms of digital intimacy and digital sexuality that ‘reflects intersectional power relations and charged histories’ (p. 115). Finally, the reflection on Histories, an excellent way to conclude this overview by showing the parallelism between migration history and media history. Leurs proposes a historicisation of the four perspectives discussed so far, to achieve a more dynamic approach and recognise how ‘the actions and experiences of the actors involved have formed particularly situated media-historical arrangements’ (p. 155).
Interdisciplinarity, however, is not only sought through a review of the main discussions in this field, but also by ‘physically’ bringing other voices into it. At the end of each section, Leurs inserts two ‘Research Dialogues’, conversations with international scholars of digital migration that enrich the topic addressed and make the text dynamic and with a wide range of perspectives. However, I believe that the strength of these dialogues is their personal character; the first question asked by Leurs is always: ‘How did you come to study this?’, offering a view of the individual motivations that drive and shape research and making the need for a more relational approach even more explicit.
Offering a rich review of debates and studies conducted, Digital Migration is an essential reading for scholars and students interested in migration and digital technologies, to understand and explore the different facets of this relationship, and to challenge the field for alternative approaches.
