MIGRATION, ICTS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF TRANSNATIONAL FAMILY LIFE
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Politics Psych Sociology and Int Studies
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
Publications
Daniel Miller (Author)
(2011)
The personal consequences of Facebook
Daniel Miller (Author)
(2011)
Home in the age of polymedia
Daniel Miller (Author)
(2011)
Transnationalism in the age of Facebook
Madianou M
(2018)
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in THE MONITORING OF PUBLIC OPINION: economic&social changes
MADIANOU M
(2016)
Ambient co-presence: transnational family practices in polymedia environments
in Global Networks
Madianou M
(2014)
Smartphones as Polymedia
in Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
MADIANOU M
(2012)
Migration and the accentuated ambivalence of motherhood: the role of ICTs in Filipino transnational families
in Global Networks
Madianou M
(2011)
The Handbook of Media Audiences
Madianou M
(2014)
Mediatization of Communication -
Madianou M
(2016)
Family Life in an Age of Migration and Mobility
| Description | - For migrant mothers with left-behind children developments in digital media represent a transformation in the performance of transnational mothering. - The success of transnational communication for left-behind children depends on three factors: the age of the child during the mother's migration; the quality of the pre-existing relationship; and the media available for communication. - New communication technologies are becoming integral to how transnational relationships are experienced even if they cannot solve problems of separation. - One of the most profound consequences of digital media is that they transform the whole experience of migration as they increasingly frame key decisions regarding migration itself and settlement in the UK. - Inequalities in access and digital literacy have significant consequences for the quality of transnational relationships: for Filipino migrants with young children left behind, access to new media is essential for establishing a relationship with their children and for their own emotional wellbeing; for left-behind families internet-based communication can correct the asymmetry of phone-based communication which remains prohibitively expensive. Digital media are not luxuries for transnational families; they are essential resources for everyday life. - The legal status of migrants is correlated to their dependency on new media. Undocumented migrants are almost entirely dependent on new media for keeping in touch with their left-behind children or partners. - Access to affordable means of communication is essential for migrants with left-behind families. Developing digital literacies is also of fundamental significance and needs to be supported by those organisations dealing with migrant workers. - We have developed a new concept and theory of 'polymedia' to understand the proliferating communicative opportunities as a structured environment rather than a list of discrete technologies. In a polymedia environment each medium is defined relationally to alternatives; furthermore, the choice of medium acquires communicative intent as users exploit media functionalities to manage their relationships. - Our transnational methodology was crucial for understanding the consequences of migration. If we had only conducted research in the UK, or in the sending countries our findings would have been significantly different. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes can help shape policies on migration and transnational families / family reunification in particular. Our findings are also relevant to policies regarding non-migrant populations who maintain relationships at a distance. More broadly our outcomes are also relevant for policies on the role of social and mobile media in family life; virtual or remote work; social media in friendships and sociality. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Environment Government Democracy and Justice Other |
| Description | The recommendations of the research study were adopted by a COFACE/ European Commission report (2013). |
| Description | BBC Radio Documentary on Virtual Mothering |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interviewed for BBC World Service Documentary on Virtual Mothering, broadcast on 22/5/18). The Documentary is a regular BBC world service programme which reaches thousands of people globally. The programme is available as a podcast after the initial broadcast. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csxgb5 |
| Description | Digital diasporas : migration, ICTs and transnationalism |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The conference addressed the convergence of two parallel developments: global migration and the proliferation of new media, which are having profound consequences for our transnational world. New developments in digital media are transforming the experience of migration with implications for family life, sociality and intimacy, identity and political involvement. Through a series of talks and panels, the conference assessed the impact of digital media on all aspects of migration. Generated interest in research and future collaborations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1328/ |
| Description | Distant mothering : the hidden injuries of migration? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at the Anna Bidder Research Evenings, Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Facebook, media and migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Paper given to Deptartment of Communications, University of Catalunya Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Facebook, media and migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to Deptartment of Cultural Studies, University of Western Sydney |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Facebook, media and migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Public lecture to Deptartment of Social Science, Reykjavik University |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Facebook, media and migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to Deptartment of Social Science, Yunnan University |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Facebook, media and migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to Deptartment of Media and Communication, University of Queensland |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Facebook, media and migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to Deptartment of Anthropology, University of Melbourne |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Facebook, media and migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Public lecture to Arts Festival |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Interview in BBC Radio 4 programme 'Word of Mouth' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Radio 4 interview (Word of Mouth) on the emotional consequences of social media use within families. The programme is available as a podcast. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0714nj0 |
| Description | Interview with Toby Miller (cultural studies podcasts) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Mirca Madianou interviewed by Toby Miller about the 'Humanitarian Technologies' and 'Migration and New Media' Projects. The podcast was downloaded more than 570 times within the first month. Two further interview requests followed up. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://culturalstudies.podbean.com/e/mirca-madianou-on-humanitarian-technologies-crisis-and-migratio... |
| Description | Invited speaker and participant at the Media, Migration and Xenophobia Conference, Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Conference Centre, Lake Como, 16-20 October 2017. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Invited speaker and participant at the Media, Migration and Xenophobia Conference, Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Conference Centre, Lake Como, 16-20 October 2017 organized by the UN with participants from the aid and media sectors. The main conference output was the UN-commissioned report on Xenophobia, Migration and the role of the media which was published in 2018: https://i.unu.edu/media/gcm.unu.edu/attachment/4356/Bellagio-web-03ix18.pdf |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://i.unu.edu/media/gcm.unu.edu/attachment/4356/Bellagio-web-03ix18.pdf |
| Description | Long distance care? : migration, transnational families and new media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Transnational families which are separated as a consequence of the international division of labour are becoming more frequent, but research has yet to establish the ways in which care and intimacy are affected. A research project led by Dr Mirca Madianou, in collaboration with Professor Daniel Miller, investigates this relatively unexplored dimension of globalisation and asks what is the role of ICTs (internet and mobile phones) in the context of transnational family life. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| URL | http://www.cshss.cam.ac.uk/news/relay/current.pdf |
| Description | Mediating migration : ICTs and long distance relationships among Filipino transnational families |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at the weekly departmental Seminar, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Mediating migration : new media and distant mothering in Filipino transnational families |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at the seminar series of the Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Mediating migration : polymedia and transnational family communication |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | The phenomenon of left-behind children within transnational families is widely assumed to be one of the hidden injuries of globalisation. This paper asks whether the massive transformation in new communications technologies over the last few years has had an impact on the ability of transnational families to cope with separation. For example, a migrant mother in London can now call and text her left-behind children in the Philippines several times a day, peruse social networking sites and leave the webcam on for 12 hours achieving a sense of co-presence. In this talk I will draw on a three year comparative ethnography of Filipino migrant women in the UK and their left-behind children in the Philippines which was part for the ESRC-funded Project: Migration, ICTs and Transnational families conducted in collaboration with Daniel Miller. In my talk I will contrast the perspectives of migrant mothers and left-behind children. Whilenew communication technologies allow mothers to feel empowered in reconstituting their maternal identities, their left-behind children remainsignificantly more ambivalent about the consequences of transnational communication. Although new media, understood as an emerging environment of polymedia, cannot solve relationship problems, they do become increasingly integral to the way relationships are enacted and experienced. Moreover, I will conclude that they are also beginning to transform the wider experience of migration as they affect key decisions relating to migration or settlement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Mediating migration : polymedia and transnational family communication |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | The phenomenon of left-behind children within transnational families is widely assumed to be one of the hidden injuries of globalisation. This paper asks whether the massive transformation in new communications technologies over the last few years has had an impact on the ability of transnational families to cope with separation. For example, a migrant mother in London can now call and text her left-behind children in the Philippines several times a day, peruse social networking sites and leave the webcam on for 12 hours achieving a sense of co-presence. In this talk I will draw on a three year comparative ethnography of Filipino migrant women in the UK and their left-behind children in the Philippines which was part for the ESRC-funded Project: Migration, ICTs and Transnational families conducted in collaboration with Daniel Miller. In my talk I will contrast the perspectives of migrant mothers and left-behind children. Whilenew communication technologies allow mothers to feel empowered in reconstituting their maternal identities, their left-behind children remainsignificantly more ambivalent about the consequences of transnational communication. Although new media, understood as an emerging environment of polymedia, cannot solve relationship problems, they do become increasingly integral to the way relationships are enacted and experienced. Moreover, I will conclude that they are also beginning to transform the wider experience of migration as they affect key decisions relating to migration or settlement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Migration and new media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Paper given to Anthropolgy Department at University of East London - UEL Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Migration and new media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to Deptartment of Cultural Studies, University of West Indies |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Migration and new media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Public lecture to Philosophy and Music Festival |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Migration and new media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Paper given to Anthropolgy Department at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Migration and new media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to Deptartment of Cultural Studies, University of West Indies |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Migration, ICTs and transnational families |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Invited speaker at CRASSH's Digital Humanities seminar series. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Migration, transnational families and new media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presented key findings to the launch workshop of the Leicester Migration Research Network |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Mothers, material culture and migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Paper withing workshop |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Privacy and parenting by mobile phone |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Interview about ESRC research on BBC Radio 4 programme Thinking Allowed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012l4p1 |
| Description | Radio documentary |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Radio documentary featuring the Transnational families research and interview with Dr. Madianou. The documentary was produced by Anna Burns and featured on Goldsmiths Website. It was subsequently broadcast by Resonance FM on August 28th 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.gold.ac.uk/new-x-change/ |
| Description | Radio interview (BBC Radio 4 - Pick of the week) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | BBC Radio 4, 'Pick of the Week'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071s6pq |
| Description | Research on transnational families |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to Deptartment of Communication, Ateneo University |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Social Science Bites Podcast 'Technology in Everyday Life' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Social Science Bites is produced by SAGE and invites leading social scientists to present their perspectives on how our social world is created, and how social science can help us understand people and how they behave. Dr. Madianou was invited to discuss her work on the role of media technologies in everyday life focusing in particular on her ESRC funded projects 'Transnational Families and communication technologies' and 'Humanitarian Technologies'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.socialsciencespace.com/about-socialsciencebites/ |
| Description | Technologies of motherhood : migration, new media and maternal ambivalence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at the weekly seminar, Centre for Gender Studies, University of Cambridge |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| URL | http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/whatson/detail.shtml?uid=f2721a5d-5eb3-3119-a1ce-7e8b5a6c0913 |