Abstract

This edited collection interrogates the diversity of transnational migration experiences in the Asia-Pacific through the lens of digital ethnography in order to explore the transformative effects digital media plays in these experiences. While there has been work on the various ways in which internet communication technologies (ICTs) particularly mobile communication allows for various forms of connectivity between individuals and groups in this age of hyper (transnational) mobility, there is a scarcity on the way digital media presents challenges, creates agency and alters relationships within the broad umbrella of the transnational migration experience. The authors in this collection– who come from diverse disciplinary backgrounds across social, cultural, education and communication research – present cutting edge cross and trans disciplinary analyses of transnational migration where digital media becomes a creative, if not fundamental avenue, for migrants to develop new strategies for dealing with their cross-border mobilities.
Transnational and transformative, this book is an important contribution on digitalised migrants in Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Of interest to Anthropology, Sociology, Media/Communication Studies, and Migration and Refugee Studies, it provides a number of richly detailed case studies that go beyond mere connectivity to emphasise the affective, playful and influential aspects of social media in the lives of migrants as well as the underexplored area of left-behind families and friends in all their multiple facets.
Raminder Kaur, Professor of Anthropology and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex
Transnational mobilites and digital technologies are bringing us into the interconnected One World and at the same time the Many Worlds that are created by different groups parallel to one another. This book breaks new ground by revealing how new types of social relations and individual subjectivities are emerging from these critical developments.
Biao Xiang, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford
Depicting mobilities in both the virtual and the physical worlds, this edited volume marks the frontier of international migration research. These empirically grounded studies show that digital media has not only transformed cross-border migration experiences but also their theorization.
Gracia Liu-Farrer, Professor, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University
Brenda S. A. Yeoh is a Professor in the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore
Catherine Gomes is Senior Lecturer at the School of Media and Communication, RMIT University