Nomads and Societies of Control: Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in a Global Refugee Crisis

NOMADS AND SOCIETIES OF CONTROL:  ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN A GLOBAL REFUGEE CRISIS

Unrelenting wars of attrition, global terrorism and widespread economic deprivation have created a global refugee crisis.  The uprooted populations have begun to migrate en masseto more stable parts of the world, e.g., European countries, in pursuit of freedom from hunger and oppression. Focusing on the current refugee crisis in Europe, my paper will examine:

 

• What role does information and communication technology (ICT) play in facilitating and accelerating the inflow of mass migrations into Europe?
• What are the current and future social and political implications of the global mobility of such massive groups of migrants as they seek asylum in nations whose values and norms so far have been socially and culturally more homogenous than diverse.  Could ICT breakdown the barriers to social integration?
• In what ways could ICT be useful in smoothening the social shocks that would follow such a sudden and massive influx of refugees into a country?  In the process of absorbing massive migrations of such diverse populations, what methods and tools would the recipient societies need or have to develop for integrating such masses of migrants in order to avoid social friction and exclusion leading to their ghettoization?

The theoretical framework will be drawn from Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guttari : Disciplinary Society, Societies of Control, Nomad’s Deterritorialization/Reterritorialization, as they apply to the experiences of the migrants and the recipient European countries’ facilities and rules of integration. Contemporary events and current data will illustrate the above issues.