A. Aneesh, Virtual Migration: The Programming of Globalization

Abstract

Possibly unnoticed by many, the fundamental notion of what it means to be an immigrant is changing rapidly. Aihwa Ong (1999), for example, argues the need for a new category, transnationals, consisting of people who not only hold citizenship or resident status in two countries, but in fact live in both of them, in commuter fashion. All this is of course facilitated by technology—fast air travel, cheap telephone communication, e-mail, and the like. In his book, Virtual Migration: the Programming of Globalization (Duke University Press, 2006), A. Aneesh takes this a step further. The impact of technology is so profound that many now “migrate” without leaving their home towns. Importation of labor, one of the traditional goals of immigration policy, is now reversed: Modern technological mechanisms now make it easier to move the work rather than move the workers, and offshoring of information technology (IT) work is booming. Contemporaneously, we are seeing an evolution of power, with control flowing now to computers and those who program and run them, a phenomenon Aneesh calls algocracy—government by the computer algorithm. As the work moves abroad from the country to which power is applied, power shifts as well. Take something as simple as withdrawing cash from a bank. Aneesh points out that with an automatic teller machine, no step in the transaction is negotiable, in contrast to one’s traditional interaction with a human teller. We must respond to the questions put to us by the ATM—and only those questions. The same nonnegotiable nature of the process occurs online, when one reviews one’s bank account, submits computerized applications for jobs and schools, purchases goods and services, and so on. Even one’s interaction with humans can be controlled to a large extent by machine. One might call the bank to inquire about an account error, but a machine Int. Migration & Integration (2008) 9:425–427 DOI 10.1007/s12134-008-0074-8