‘Travelling with the traveller’: an ethnographic framework for the study of migrants’ digital inclusion

Abstract

This paper argues that researchers who study immigrants’ digital inclusion need to shed light on immigrants’ use of digital technologies within the time frame and context of the ‘immigration travel’ and while immigrants are in transition to a new or safer place for resettlement. In support of this argument, the paper proposes a ‘travelling with the traveller’ research framework that applies the ethnographic methodology and aims at the researcher experiencing or even becoming an integral part of the immigration travel. The paper presents the proposed travelling with the traveller framework and discusses how it can offer genuine insights into the implications of digital inclusion (or the absence of it) for immigrants experiencing, combating or alleviating all sorts of adversities, volatile emotions, unanticipated problems and moments of uncertainty crisis they so often encounter while on the move from homeland to another land, from one life setting to another. Further, the paper presents the fieldwork processes and data collection techniques of the proposed travelling with the traveller framework, such as participant observation, informal and open-ended interviews, as well as the use of video and photographic footage.