Power geometries of mediated care: (re)mapping transnational families and immobility of the Rohingya diaspora in a digital age

Abstract

This article provides a new direction in digital media and communication studies and develops an emergent analytical lens of digital media and immobility in the context of forced migration. Drawing on a qualitative multi-sited research approach, I shed light on digitally mediated transnational care among the Rohingya diaspora in refugee camps in Bangladesh and in Brisbane, Australia. I draw on Massey’s idea of the ‘power geometry’ with a combination ‘immobility turn’ to consider how the socio-spatial mobility is restricted and regulated, and how these immobilities are crucial to understanding family care practices. I argue that the idea of transnational families existing beyond nation-states, and the social and spatial immobilities may help us to identify the linkages, discrepancies and power asymmetries that exist in cross-cultural settings. The findings offer a critical stance on immobility, which impacts and shapes transnational caregiving practices of forced migrants in the age of digital media.

‘Without technology we’d be very stuck’: Ageing migrants’ differential (im)mobile practices during a lockdown

“…Using the mobilities lens, this paper explores the ‘immobilities’ produced through networked environments. This approach builds on a several works, highlighting how stasis surfaces in digital environments as mediated by socio-cultural, technological, and contextual factors (Aziz, 2022; Cabalquinto, 2022; Seuferling, 2021; Smets, 2019). To further explore mediated immobilities, I apply the concept of ‘network capital’, underlining how uneven access to resources, capacities, and social networks stir forced immobility within digital spaces.…”

Cultures of (im)mobile entanglements

“…As highlighted by Salazar (2021), movements and stasis are intertwined and inseparable. More recently, several scholars whose works are situated within the intersecting field of digital media and migration have begun to examine the mobility and immobility continuum (Aziz, 2022;Cabalquinto, 2022;Smets, 2019;Twigt, 2022). Their studies unpack how individual users manage physical immobility with virtual mobility (Aziz, 2022;Smets, 2019;Twigt, 2022), as well as experiencing immobility in digital environments mediated by asymmetrical access, resources, competencies, socio-economic living conditions and socio-cultural systems (Cabalquinto, 2022;Twigt, 2022).…”

“…This special issue provides insight on how macro, meso and micro factors inform mobile subjects' everyday and relational mobilities and immobilities (Salazar, 2021;Sheller, 2018) in a digitally mediated realm. To reiterate, we draw our articulations from a growing number of studies that have highlighted how the mediated mobility and immobility of refugees (Aziz, 2022;Smets, 2019;Twigt, 2022) and migrants (Ahlin, 2023;Baldassar et al, 2007;Cabalquinto, 2022;Madianou and Miller, 2012), enabled by digital media access and use, has been informed by technological landscapes and competencies, sociodemographic backgrounds, culturally specific familial and social relations, and broader migration regimes. This approach seeks to advance the conception of the intertwining of mobilities and immobilities in an increasingly digital and datafied era (Cabalquinto, 2022;Smets, 2019;Twigt, 2022).…”