Digital diaspora : an overview of the research areas of migration and new media through a narrative literature review

Abstract

Academic research on migration and the use of new media constitutes a growing field. The first studies dealing explicitly with the field appeared in the end of the 1990s. Now, it has become an established research area. The impact and importance of the new technologies for migrants is well established. Appropriation of ICTs and new media environments have become a ubiquitous feature of everyday life in migrant groups. The research area is still understudied, characterized by rapid changes and shifts, and is shaped by the changing structural conditions of migrants and the proliferation of forms of media. In this article, I provide an overview of the developing research area through a review of the existing literature on migration and the use of new media. I elaborate the various aspects of the research field, the research category, current themes and topics, theoretical and conceptual discussions, and methodological approaches.