Mobile lives, open cultures, and cross-media ecosystem. What securities for migrants?

Abstract

The evolution of the web has created a borderless social space that facilitates communication between geographically dispersed immigrant communities across the globe. For migrants and asylum seekers trying to enter Europe, for example, not only traditional infrastructures (railways, ports...) are important, but also electronic-digital infrastructures such as smartphones, apps (simultaneous translation programs, messaging platforms), and social networks. The possession of a smartphone by a migrant cannot be considered a luxury gadget, as it is constantly narrated in a stereotyped way in the public discourse according to media entertainment logic, but the internet and mobile phones underline the need for everyone to be connected without space-time limits and to have access to all the media contents offered. So, what role do the media play in human mobility and the imagination of migrant subjects? How do they change and what value do the spaces of connection crossed physically and virtually take on? What security for migrants in the mobile communication society?