Migrants’ Uses of Media and the Concept of Transnationalism

Abstract

This article presents the use of the concept “transnationalism” for studying the relationship between international migrants and communication. First, it briefly reviews transnationalism as a concept that has been employed in migration studies since the 1990s. The concept’s key proposal is that most migrants do not live their lives only in the societies where they now reside. In fact, they have “a foot in both worlds” meaning that their connections with the home country and people left behind are maintained. Transnationalism is closely related to communication, especially in the digital age that new technologies and various media platforms allow most migrants to conveniently take part in cross-border communication. This article also presents several examples of the studies examining the way migrants in different countries use media. It suggests transnationalism can be an intriguing conceptual framework for exploring migration phenomena in Thailand, which would shed light on the field of media and communication studies and provide insights into any societies where many people may not affiliate themselves with only one geographic location or one nation-state anymore.