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(Cross-posted at my fellowship blog — How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies)

According to Swisscom anthropologist Stefana Broadbent, migrants, not geeks, are the early adopters of mobile phones (The Economist¹ via Putting People First²) —

It is migrants, rather than geeks, who have emerged as the “most aggressive” adopters of new communications tools, says Broadbent. Dispersed families with strong ties and limited resources have taken to voice-over-internet services, IM and webcams, all of which are cheap or free. They also go online to get news or to download music from home.

Various studies (by Pew Internet & American Life Project³ and Forrester Research⁴ amongst others) have shown that Hispanics are more active users of mobile phones, and especially mobile data services, than other ethnic groups in the USA (via San Fransisco Chronicle⁵ and Mobile Marketing Association⁶). This can be attributed to several reasons — economic (lower mean household income means that the mobile phone is often used as the main computer), demographic (family and friends are spread out across the United States and across the border), and cultural (a higher value is placed on staying in touch with family and friends).

Federico Subervi, a journalism and mass communication professor at Texas State University, links back these findings to the migrant experience (via San Fransisco Chronicle⁶) –

The cell phone also better serves a more untethered community, especially recent immigrants who value portability over traditional landlines.

A study on mobile phone usage amongst migrant workers in Beijing⁷ explains how the patterns of mobile phone usage contribute to changes in migrant workers’ way of life through four concepts — feigned presence, concern in absence, jianghu relations, and romantic relations.

You can also add mobile payments to that list — the GSM Association has partnered with mobile operators and financial institutions to launch a Mobile Money Transfer⁸ initiative to make it easier for international migrant workers to send money home (via The Register⁹).

Finally, in the book ‘Mobile Communication and Society’¹⁰, published by MIT Press, the authors paint a grim picture of mobile phone usage amongst migrant workers –

Migrant workers often constitute a particular use group, whose mobile communications patterns differ from upper- and middle-class professionals, as well as from small entrepreneurs who work at their place of permanent residence.

With problems in accessing domestic, office and public pay phones, having one’s own cell phone has obvious advantages. In this sense, part of the reason for high demand for mobile phones amongst migrant workers has to do with the constraints of the larger social structure. Left with no choice but the cell phone in these circumstances, those migrant workers who have adopted the mobile phone still have limited power to control when, where and how they communicate with others. Sometimes, they make rational decisions, such as using SMS to save money. But, at a higher level, this is not a rational system for migrant workers, who have to pay more to get less, who have to go through a series of hardships which ordinary, permanent urbanites do not face while using the new technology. While the migrant workers are busy pursuing their urban dream, in which the cell phone is now the centerpiece, this new technological condition of mobile use among the “information-have-less” only operates at the micro-level and cannot solve the macro problems, whose solution depends on innovative adjustments and combinations of public policy, corporate strategy and working class culture.

Mobile phones as the primary personal computer vs. mobile phones as the only means of communication — like everything else in the migrant condition, mobile phone usage is also a study in contrasts and contradictions.

References

- 1 Home Truths About Telecoms, Jun 7th 2007, The Economist

- 2 Recent immigrants driving advanced mobile phone use, both in Europe and in the US; May 4, 2008; Putting People First by Experientia

- 2 Mobile Access to Data and Information, by John Horrigan; March 2008, Pew Internet & American Life Project.

- - 4 Hispanics Connect To Mobile Data: Hispanic Mobile Data Users Are A Small But Attractive Group by Tamara Barber; February 2007, Forrester Research

- 5 Cell phone firms’ dream demographic: Latinos by Ryan Kim; May 4, 2008; San Fransisco Chronicle.

- 6 Academic Review: Hispanic Mobile Telephony Trends By Larry Upton, Mobile Marketing Association.

- 7 A Preliminary Study on the Use of Mobile Phones amongst Migrant Workers in Beijing, by Ke Yang; June 14, 2008; Knowledge, Technology, and Policy Journal.

- 8 Mobile Money Transfer initiative by GSM Association.

- 9 Money transfers go mobile for migrant workers by John Leyden; 13th February 2007; The Register.

- 10 Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective by Manuel Castells, Mireia Fernandez-Ardevol, Jack Linchuan Qiu, Araba Sey; MIT Press; 2007; pp 84-87.