Connected migrants: Encapsulation and cosmopolitanization

Abstract

Taking a cue from Dana Diminescu's seminal manifesto on "the connected migrant," this special issue introduces the notions of encapsulation and cosmopolitanism to understand digital migration studies. The pieces here present a nonbinary, integrated notion of an increasingly digitally mediated cosmopolitanism that accommodates differences within but also recognizes Europe's colonial legacy and the fraught postcolonial present. Of special interest is an essay by the late Zygmunt Bauman, who argues that the messy boundaries of Europe require a renewed vision of cosmopolitan Europe, based on dialogue and aspirations, rather than on Eurocentrism and universal values. In this article, we focus on three overarching discussions informing this special issue: (a) an appreciation of the so-called "refugee crisis" and the articulation of conflicting Europeanisms, (b) an understanding of the relationships between the concepts of cosmopolitanization and encapsulation, and (c) a recognition of the emergence of the interdisciplinary field of digital migration studies.

Popular Communications in the Populist Political Moment: Editorial Introduction to Special Issue 'Refugee Socialities and the Media'

“…Yet all the contributions recognize that, in some way or another, mediated refugee socialities of solidarity, hospitality, and hostility are powerfully constrained by the intensification of citizenship as a technology of governance that ensures that certain categories of people remain disqualified and excluded from national citizenship (see Tyler & Marciniak, 2013, p. 144). Thus, one must recognize that the phenomenon of digitally connected refugees (Leurs & Ponzanesi, 2018) does not necessarily empower refugees in absolute terms (see Twigt, this issue; Nikunen, this issue), and that traditional media institutions such as the printed press and television continue to hold immense power in the production and consumption of popular representations of refugees that foster hostility and fear of the "other. "…”

“…He shows how in the context of a highly individualized, creative, and memetic protest dynamics, the photographs of a drowned refugee child, although bound to exaggerations, dilutions, and manipulations of the factual basis of the original photograph and event, have the potential to generate solidarity toward the performer and the original event. In the special issue of Popular Communication on "Connected Migrants," Leurs and Ponzanesi (2018) further note how the phenomenon of digitally connected refugees unsettles mainstream images of destitute and powerless refugees fleeing from war, famine, and other atrocities. This special issue adds to these debates by zooming in on diverse possibilities in the media ecology where creative mediations of the refugee crisis have surfaced.…”

“…It also more comprehensively accounts for the affective and expressive dimension of the refugee crisis by discussing not only visual representations in mainstream news narratives (Zaborowski & Georgiou), artistic interventions (Horsti; Ong, & Rovisco), and grass-roots digital protest (Nikunen), but also the mediated socialities experienced by refugees themselves (Twigt) and those of their fellow migrants who regard them with some ambivalence (Cabañes). This collection also intends to build on insights raised from recent academic collections on media and migration, including the special issue of Popular Communication on "Connected Migrants" edited by Leurs and Ponzanesi (2018) and the Social Media + Society special issue "Forced Migrants and Digital Connectivity" edited by Koen Leurs and Kevin Smets (2018). Similar to Leurs and Ponzanesi's stance (2018), we are concerned with how the mediated socialities of migrants and refugees occur in contexts where cosmopolitan openness and hospitality can operate in tandem with hostility, the fear of the "other," and a retreat into ethnic absolutism.…”

Slow Religion: Literary Journalism as a Tool for Interreligious Dialogue

“…It stems from the need of some communities linked to specific faiths to get out of the bubble that digital space can represent. Although Castells (1996) pointed out that new media technologies can contribute to the construction of networks between social groups, the creation of online communities (Dawson and Cowan 2004) linked to religion is, in some cases, at a stage prior to maturity (Díez Bosch et al 2018); thus, digital dialogue between different communities is still a distant reality (Díez Bosch et al 2018;Leurs and Ponzanesi 2018). One of the reasons for this is that many communities still do not consider the internet a space (Spadaro 2014), but rather a tool or an instrument of communication, not considering the further possibilities it has.…”

Glocalised Motherhood: Sociality and Affect in Migrant Mothers’ Online Communities

“…To explore how and why migrant mothers use these online communities, this article draws on a thematic analysis of interviews conducted with 41 mothers from a range of migrant communities (including Indian, Malaysian, Swedish, German, Brazilian and British), living in Melbourne and Sydney, who create and participate in Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 3(1-2), 09 © 2019 by Author/s 3 / 15 their new maternal role (Bartholomew et al, 2012). Even in these digitally connected times, and despite the wellestablished concept of the 'connected migrant' who maintains ties with their social networks at home while being geographically mobile (Diminescu, 2008;Leurs and Ponzanesi, 2018), migration continues to disrupt migrants' social infrastructures. Studies focusing on the challenges of migrant motherhood often call for increased social support as a means to address them, but rarely analyse how that social support might be constructed (Benza and Liamputtong, 2014).…”