Influence of New Media on Immigration Patterns

The paper presented here is an attempt to analyze the application of McLuhan’s statement “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us" to the field of immigration. Indeed, I feel that the truth of his insight becomes especially apparent when we think about the extent in which the advances in modern technology and media have transformed the way people travel from one country to another, reshaping human migration patterns across the globe. Even though I’ve been interested in the topic of immigration and new media for a while, this is the first time that I’ve had an opportunity to read empirical studies that examine the correlation between these phenomena. All of the readings this week contribute on one way or another to illustrate the scope of this influence.

Appadurai (1996) suggests that in the past there were not so many cultural transactions between social groups, or so much intercultural communication and exchange as there is today. The reason for this is precisely what McLuhan indicated in his legendary statement: humanity created tools, and those tools irremediably influenced various aspects of human life. In particular, we can identify two groups of tools which have influenced the frequency and reasons why people travel: Firstly, the transportation tools, with the introduction of steamships, automobiles and airplanes, and secondly the communication and media (especially social media) tools. The impact of transportation is so obvious that I don’t think it deserves further development, besides the mention that, as Appadurai (1996) pointed out, thanks to them “we have entered into an altogether new condition of neighborliness, even with those most distant from ourselves”. (p. 29)

But the way in which new technologies reshaped immigration patterns deserves - in my opinion - a more profound analysis. Appadurai (1996) proposed the introduction of the camera, the computer, and the telephone as first foundations for the creation of a “global Village”...