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Lines across the desert: mobile phone use and mobility in the context of trans-Saharan migration

Lines across the desert: mobile phone use and mobility in the context of trans-Saharan migration In West and Northern Africa, mobile phone coverage has been expanding parallely to increased attempts by Africans to migrate overland to Europe. This paper explores possible links between the two phenomena, looking specifically into the role of mobile phones in trans-Saharan migration. It provides a first detailed description of the telecommunication processes underlying contemporary trans-Saharan migration. An analytical framework is presented that helps to explain how mobile phones facilitate migration by interacting with the social and spatial factors shaping migrants' mobility. By drawing on this framework and fieldwork conducted among Congolese migrants in Morocco, it is shown that the expansion of the communication infrastructure is, on the one hand, only one of several factors that have turned the region into a more “transitable” space. On the other hand, the use of mobile phones is demonstrated to be central to the migration process: migrants draw on the unprecedented accessibility of contacts equipped with mobile phones to tie together novel, geographically expansive networks. Phones are also shown to be used by migrants' “helpers” for the purpose of internal coordination. Thomas Molony is the accepting Guest Editor for this article. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Information Technology for Development Taylor & Francis

Lines across the desert: mobile phone use and mobility in the context of trans-Saharan migration

Schaub, Max Leonard
Information Technology for Development , Volume 18 (2): 19 – Apr 1, 2012
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References (89)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Commonwealth Secretariat
ISSN
1554-0170
eISSN
0268-1102
DOI
10.1080/02681102.2011.604082
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In West and Northern Africa, mobile phone coverage has been expanding parallely to increased attempts by Africans to migrate overland to Europe. This paper explores possible links between the two phenomena, looking specifically into the role of mobile phones in trans-Saharan migration. It provides a first detailed description of the telecommunication processes underlying contemporary trans-Saharan migration. An analytical framework is presented that helps to explain how mobile phones facilitate migration by interacting with the social and spatial factors shaping migrants' mobility. By drawing on this framework and fieldwork conducted among Congolese migrants in Morocco, it is shown that the expansion of the communication infrastructure is, on the one hand, only one of several factors that have turned the region into a more “transitable” space. On the other hand, the use of mobile phones is demonstrated to be central to the migration process: migrants draw on the unprecedented accessibility of contacts equipped with mobile phones to tie together novel, geographically expansive networks. Phones are also shown to be used by migrants' “helpers” for the purpose of internal coordination. Thomas Molony is the accepting Guest Editor for this article.

Journal

Information Technology for Development – Taylor & Francis

Published: Apr 1, 2012

Keywords: mobile phones; migration; communication; Sahara; migrant network

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