The influence of new technologies in the return of contemporary inmigrants

Authors

  • Leonardo Cavalcanti

Keywords:

International migration, return, immigrants, new technologies

Abstract

Based on the anthropological field work on the group of Brazilian immigrants in Barcelona, carried out by the author, the return is analyzed as a constant aspect that is present in the daily life of the contemporary immigrants. The technological advances in the field of the communications, the transport and the information, reached by the immigrant population through Internet, “locutorios”, cyber, air companies, etc., appear to be the means through which geographic distance acquires new meanings. From these new configurations of space and time, the idea of the return, and the images associated to it, are multiplied in novel forms. Thus, this text aims to understand how the return in its classic meaning has become a myth and how the technological development has influenced its new meanings in the context of the international migrations.

Published

2007-06-04