Living in the Limits: Migration and Information Practices of Undocumented Latino Migrants
Abstract
Information practices, whether mediated by technologies or not, have critical roles on the experience leading up to and resulting from migration. This paper analyzes the relationships between information practices (information seeking, use, and sharing [1]) and Latino migration in and towards the US. The paper is based on findings from two convergent studies of Latin American migrants in the US [2, 3]. The two studies are based on the qualitative collection of stories by undocumented Latino migrants in different contexts. Based on our findings, we contend that migration is not a process that follows a linear progression of stages, as some scholars indicate, and that information practices can not only help expand migrants’ perceptions of their place of origin and of destination, but they also help them reaffirm their notions of wellbeing, or what a good life means to them. In addition, we show that information and communication technologies (ICT) are affording migrant lives a stronger sense of ‘in-betweenness’, generating new experiences of nationhood, sense of belonging and citizenship, as well as forming new national-transnational identities. Methodologically, our convergent studies evidence the power of using stories as a research method to gain deeper understanding of the intricate dynamics and experiences of migration, a central phenomenon of our time.
Origin | Files produced by the author(s) |
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