The ‘connected migrant’: A scoping review

Abstract

Since 2015, academic enquiry into the ‘Connected Migrant’ has proliferated globally. This scholarship has demonstrated the significant role that digital media play in the decision-making, information-seeking and community-building processes pre-, during and post-migration. This review contributes to the expanding field of Digital Migration Studies by summarising the academic literature on the ‘Connected Migrant’, to thematically explore how digital media is used by displaced migrants globally. Using a scoping review, this paper presents the literature (75 studies) by mapping the key findings using the different ‘stages’ of migration – displacement, arrival and settlement – to explore the benefits, threats, challenges and opportunities that exist for displaced migrants who use digital media. This paper finds that displaced migrants rely on the use of digital media at all stages of the migrant journey, utilising an abundance of technological affordances that are integral to navigating displacement, arrival, and settlement. However, digital media also pose a threat to displaced migrants who, often already disadvantaged, may have their locations tracked and their data surveilled. This paper concludes with a summary of the scholarly challenges faced by researchers and anticipated future directions in the field.