Researching the Connected Migrant
Résumé
In this keyword chapter, I discuss the genealogy of the figure of the connected migrant. Departing from Abdelmalak Sayad and dominant migration studies foci I argue how in the contemporary moment, migrants’ usage of digital technologies demonstrates they may shift from being doubly absent from their host and home country, towards being able to maintain a connected presence. Drawing on the notion of the pharmakon I tease out that this logic presence also brings forth ambivalent consequences, it functions as a medicine and a poison. Finally I propose the notion of migration traceability as a new model of analysis to research the connected migrant at the junction of digital humanities and computational social sciences.