Digital Diasporas: how migrant communities are embracing new media

Across the world millions of people live and work huge distances away from their home communities and only rarely get the chance to visit them. In the past, these migrants relied on letters and occasional phone calls to keep in touch. Today, however, even those on modest incomes are able to choose from an expanding range of new media to communicate, often on a daily basis, with family and friends. A conference taking place at Cambridge University later this week will look at how diasporas have increasingly embraced new media, how they make use of communication technologies and how new media play a significant role in shaping their experiences and relationships. Topics discussed will include whether new media isolate communities or help them to integrate within a host country, and whether access to cheap long distance communication is acting as a spur to greater migration. Digital Diasporas: Migration, ICTs and transnationalism, which will take place at CRASSH (The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities) on Thursday and Friday, will bring together researchers from throughout the UK and overseas to share their research and discuss common themes. The conference has been organised by Dr Mirca Madianou, Newton Trust Lecturer in Sociology at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.