New Media, Ageing, and Migration: The Impact of Digital Technologies on Melbourne's Elderly Immigrant Irish Community

New media and migration is a growing research area in a number of academic disciplines. However, most studies focus on transnational households or younger users (Madianou and Miller; Baym; Banerjee, McGuinness, and McKay). This paper reports on a study of new media use among a group often dismissed as falling on the other side of the digital divide: elderly migrants who travelled prior to the emergence of new media. It draws on surveys and semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with 60 Irish immigrants to Australia who left Ireland during the mass departures of the 1950s and 1960s. It explores the extent to which participants have embraced new media; obstacles to new media use; the impact of new media use on maintaining links to the homeland; and the impact of new media use on social integration and well being in Australia.