Standing in Two Worlds: Mobility and the Connectivity of Diaspora Communities

Diaspora communities live in an online/offline world of between their places of origin in Europe and Africa – the ‘here’ and ‘there’. This chapter looks at this connectivity and how it affects their mobility and transnational engagement. It finds that the online platforms established by diasporas enable them to transfer money and skills (financial and social remittances), with significant socio-economic and political impact in both places. The chapter points to the reality of diaspora communities in the digital world, where they take part in life in different spaces. The cyber-presence of diasporas in more than one world drives mobility through connectivity and needs to be recognised in migration studies.

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