Building transnational lives: using ICT to connect mobility and home

Abstract

The first part of the paper presents the evolution of Romanian educated migration during the last years with a special emphasis on the case of Romanian educated migrants in France. We analyze the reasons that lie behind this migration and the strategies employed in order to leave Romania. Furthermore, we proceed at a description of the problems encountered in France and of the changes that occur in the lives of migrants once at destination. We identify three overlapping dimensions that undergo important transformations due to mobility: the spatial dimension, the temporal dimension and the relational dimension. Mobility transforms the way people conceive space, time and relations to others. These transformations are further deepened by the new ICT developments. The second part of the paper puts forward the relations maintained with family and kin in the origin country. The low cost of transportation and its high speed enable migrants to make trips home more often and their family and kin to come and visit them at destination. However, in recent years immaterial flows have gained ground over material ones. Networks built between migrants and their kin and family in the home country are analysed in terms of recent developments in ICTs which affect both the nature and the frequency of the contacts. They enable migrants to act as agents of change in the origin society allowing them to be virtually present while physically absent. These relations of co-presence engender an important two – way flow of information, values and ideas. This flow enables migrants to keep informed of the events occurring in their home country and at the same time brings changes in the lives of those who remained behind.