Connettività digitale e dispositivi “Smartphone” nei processi migratori e nei percorsi di inclusione

Abstract

Multimedia devices (smartphones) for digital connectivity, and before them cell phones, have a
significant impact on communication styles and dynamics of migration. They also changed the
lifestyles of migrants in their home country and empowered them as actors of increasingly information
technology-driven societies. This paper aims at reflecting on the use that migrant people
and groups make of mobile phones to communicate and connect, especially of smartphones,
which are powerful mediators and give substantial advantages to self-organization, collection
on information, and choices all through the migratory process. We will reflect on the value of
the smartphone as a tool to help autonomy, growth, and inclusion of migrants and its influence
on dynamics of migration, based on its actual diffusion, modes of use, and implicit reasons for
its being a staple commodity. Because of their versatility, smartphones are also mediators of
multimodality. They act as amplifiers of multimedia and ICT in reducing (or amplifying) the
distance of migrants from their perceived or actual reality. Data and theories analyzed here focus
the diffusion of such technology from infrastructural factors to an evaluation of the impact on
global development, to the contribution to specific contexts and people’s needs. In these deve -
loping countries, mobile phones are a valuable support to socialization, gathering of information,
health monitoring, employment, social and economic inclusion, and education at all levels.