One of the major changes since the 1980s in the domain of diasporas is the multiplication of dispersed communities in physical space, and the parallel development of new forms of connection, action, and occupation in digital territories. This change demands a new epistemological approach. The subjects of inquiry, like all the conceptual tools and classical methodologies of the discipline, will have to be reconsidered and recontextualized in light of this new migratory reality.

If the Internet is an environment that is particularly suited to the needs of diasporas — in that it is decentralized, interactive, and transnational — the objective of this project is not to idealize this network (a regressive process in the context of online diasporic communications, given how society excludes information from a great number of people), but to explore it.

The contemporary communication and organization e-practices of migrants, and the transition from paper to electronic documents (including identity documents), have produced on the Web (with its more or less controlled accessibility schemes) a vast, wandering, and little-investigated corpus. However, it is from electronic traces that we can learn about how transnational networks function, measure migrant integration, understand the globalization of the movement of “illegal immigrants,” and understand the nature of surveillance conducted by institutions charged with controlling foreigners.

The objectives of this program are to open a new field of research, to bring together two previously separate disciplines (diaspora theory and web exploration), and to develop generic tools to be used in the social sciences and humanities.

Our interest in researching information and communications technology (ICT) use by migrants has multiple facets, and is grounded in a scientific approach that centers on the strategic capacities of migrants to establish themselves in a globalized world.

- First, this approach permits us to comprehend interactive management of sites, which could relaunch debate on integration vs. exclusion of migrants; more broadly, we can explore the specificity of the communication medium in maintaining links between migrants, their family, and the host society. Despite the predictions that technology would reduce people’s movements, in reality, it has permitted an improvement in the quality and speed of service delivery — and accordingly, no significant reduction in mobility (with rare exceptions). This observation takes on added significance when talking about a migrant milieu and a political context that is generally unfavorable to immigration. Adopting the majority of “spatio-temporal” and modern communication practices, migrants have developed integration tactics and ways to fight for the survival of their communities in foreign environments. For migrants suffering from precarious living conditions and social invisibility, systems of mobile communication have created the appearance of different mechanisms of spontaneous social integration, multiply or individually, which have informally supplemented the institutional mechanisms of integration.

- As both research and work tools, computer science systems can be adapted to a multiplicity of functions. The migration of computer engineers is one of the most visible facets of the brain drain plaguing the Third World. This profession is conducive to high mobility, and furthermore is highly sought-after in the global labor markets. Migrant computer specialists often succeed in expanding their professional networks and constructing virtual migratory spaces that precede their travels.

- A major tool for information exchange and freedom of expression, but also for struggle and control, the Internet is available to those who have fled their countries as a new territory for political and civic engagement. It has potential both for those who organize within and beyond national borders.

- No exploration of the effects brought about by the developments of ICTs in the world of refugees would be complete without mentioning the capabilities that such equipment offers to the institutions charged with controlling foreigners. During the 1990s, Europe put into place a new electronic system to manage records on resident foreigners. This type of recording is as prevalent in democratic societies as in totalitarian ones. Administrative files that deal with categories of personal data are the objects of different laws and police practices which are very much debated in civil society.

From this point forward, information and communication technologies will not only modify our approach to our object of inquiry, but also our research methods.

Program Manifesto

Program Research

Interview with Dana Diminesu in the newspaper La Croix

Dana Diminescu's Conference at the "Université de Tous Les Savoirs"