Contested Discourses on Migrant Connectivity: Migrant Users and Corporations of Mobile Phone and Money Transfer Services in Catalonia
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Contested Discourses on Migrant Connectivity: Migrant Users and Corporations of Mobile Phone and Money Transfer Services in Catalonia. An interdisciplinary approach. Author: Cecilia Gordano Peile Information and Knowledge Society Doctoral Program, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Thesis Direction Committee: Dr. Adela Ros (thesis supervisor), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Dr. Lisa Nakamura, University of Michigan Dr. Teun van Dijk, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Date of submission: July 11, 2013 C ONTESTED D ISCOURSES ON M IGRANT C ONNECTIVITY To my trans/national family, Leticia, Gerardo, Silvana and Seba C ONTESTED D ISCOURSES ON M IGRANT C ONNECTIVITY C ONTESTED D ISCOURSES ON M IGRANT C ONNECTIVITY Table of content Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction. Problematizing Migrant Connectivity .................................................................. 8 1.1. Research Objectives, Questions and Analytic Model ................................................................ 17 1.2. A Navigation Chart to Read this Dissertation ............................................................................ 21 2. A Theoretical Framework of Migrant Connectivity: Global, Network and Market Societies........26 2.1. Spatiality: Globalization from Above and From Below .............................................................. 26 The trans/national dimensions of migrant connectivity ............................................................... 31 2.2. Mobility: The Age of Migration .................................................................................................. 34 “Family is first”: beloved ones across borders .............................................................................. 36 2.3. Connectivity: the Information Age ............................................................................................. 39 2.3.1. The intersections of migration and ICT ............................................................................... 43 2.3.2. Migrants and mobile phones .............................................................................................. 46 2.3.3. Mobile theories: between the sociology of communication and ICT4D ............................ 50 2.3.4. Money transfers: from intimacy to global financial markets ............................................. 58 2.4. The Market Societies.................................................................................................................. 63 2.4.1. Locating connectivity services as part of the migration industry ....................................... 68 2.4.2. Rescuing the potential of the migration industry: in search of a conceptual model ......... 71 2.5 Concluding Remarks ........................................................................................................................ 78 3. Localizing the Research Context: Migration and Connectivity Services in Spain ........................ 81 3.1. The Migratory Dimension: Contextualizing Moroccans and Ecuadorians in Catalonia ............. 81 3.1.1. Ecuadorians in Spain: a recent and intense story ............................................................... 92 3.1.2. Moroccan migrants: from temporary workers to permanent citizens ............................... 97 3.2. The Technological Dimension and the Mobile Phone ............................................................. 100 3.3. The Market Dimension: the Private Playground where Demand and Supply Meet ............... 107 3.3.1. The telecom sector ........................................................................................................... 107 3.3.2. The money transfer sector ................................................................................................ 112 3.4. Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................................. 118 4. Methodological Approach: Combining Cultural Studies and Critical Discourse Studies ............ 120 4.1. When the Cultural Became Studies ......................................................................................... 124 4.1.1. A cultural studies approach to connectivity ..................................................................... 126 4.1.2. Consumer advertising as social discourse ......................................................................... 128 4.1.3. The socio-semiotic approach to commercial visual texts ................................................. 136 4.2. Discourse Studies: from Foucault to Fairclough ...................................................................... 143 4.2.1. The order of discourse ...................................................................................................... 146 C ONTESTED D ISCOURSES ON M IGRANT C ONNECTIVITY 4.2.2. Beyond the text and the neutral: Critical Discourse Studies ........................................... 148 4.2.3. Bearing something in mind: the socio-cognitive approach .............................................. 151 4.2.4. Playing different roles: social actor theory ....................................................................... 154 4.2.5. Template for the CDA of corporate discourse .................................................................. 156 4.3. Localizing the Subjects and Objects of Research: Constructing the Research Field ................ 160 4.3.1. Deep listening: different voices on migrant connectivity ................................................. 161 4.3.2. Defining the Corpus of Corporate Discourses: Texts and/in Context ............................... 167 4.3.3. Looking everywhere: in search of services advertisement ............................................... 170 4.3.4. Surfing the web: online corporate advertising ................................................................. 172 4.4. Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................................................... 177 5.Commodification of Migrant Connectivity I: the corporate writing ......................................... 179 5.1. Lebara: Providing Connectivity to “Ethnic Segments” ............................................................. 180 5.2. Western Union: “Connecting Families Around the World” ..................................................... 200 5.3. Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................................. 229 6.Commodification of Migrant Connectivity II: the corporate gaze ............................................ 232 6.1. Blue promises of 24/7 voice communication: the Lebara case .............................................. 240 6.2. Yellow promises of safety: the Western Union case .............................................................. 255 6.3. Concluding Remarks ............................................................................................................... 270 7. The Market Insiders’ Perspective: Company Spokespersons .................................................. 272 7.1. The Millionaire Business of Selling Minutes ............................................................................ 274 7.1.1. Constructing migrants’ telecom needs ............................................................................. 276 7.1.2.The politics of prices in telecom services customized for migrant users .......................... 281 7.1.3. The role of locutorios in telecom commercial strategies ................................................. 282 7.2. The Business of Moving Money for Mobile People ................................................................. 284 7.3. The Paradoxical Pro-migrant Position of the Private Sector ................................................ 291 7.4. Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................................. 295 8. Appropriating connectivity resources: migrants’ accounts as users of MP and MT .................. 297 8.1. Introducing Migrant Interviewees in a Critical Socio-Economic Context ................................ 298 8.2. Migrants’ Patterns of Connectivity .......................................................................................... 302 8.2.1. Extensity ............................................................................................................................ 303 8.2.2. Intensity ............................................................................................................................ 308 8.2.3. Velocity ............................................................................................................................. 315 8.2.4. Impact ............................................................................................................................... 317 8.3. Stormy Relationships? Dealing with Providers of Connectivity Services ................................. 322 8.3.1. Mobile phone appropriation strategies ............................................................................ 322 8.3.2. Mobile internet: always online? ....................................................................................... 330 C ONTESTED D ISCOURSES ON M IGRANT C ONNECTIVITY 8.3.3. Dealing with MP companies: in search of the best deal ..................................................