Paper short abstract:

Guidelines for fieldwork developed in Spain about ICT practices among the migrant population with two aims: first, to identify and explain unexpected characteristics of ICT uses in a context of rapid social change and, secondly, to understand their role in the digital divide.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will focus on the guidelines for a fieldwork developed in Spain about ICT practices among the migrant population with two aims: first, to identify and explain unexpected characteristics of ICT uses in a context of rapid social change and a rapid increase in immigration and, secondly, to understand their role in a more complex definition of the digital divide.

One of the outcomes of our previous fieldwork, as well as some results presented in other studies, show that the immigrant population is using ICT in specific ways, both in spaces and purposes of use. For example, in recent surveys home is the place where most people say to have used computers and the Internet in the previous three months, both men and women, immigrants and non-immigrants. However, the great importance of cyber-cafes (sometimes difficult to distinguish from locutories) should be pointed out for the immigrant population as a preferred place for using computers and connecting to the Internet (40% of use) in contrast to the rest of the sectors and groups, for whom this space is significantly less important. In fact, we have observed how cyber-cafes are spaces where transnational family relationships are maintained and developed. We have ethnographic examples of male children and adults who migrate and maintain weekly contact with wives and mothers - illiterate in the traditional sense - through videoconferences in the locutories for more than ten years, as well as similar examples among women who start a migratory chain in contact with other female relatives back home.

In the same line as above, it is necessary to explore uses of blogs, web sites, forums, news and messaging at a transnational level and inside ethnic groups in receiving regions. Moreover, the influence of ICT uses among the immigrant population on cultural practices in their countries of origin has not been explored yet, in relation to the position these countries may occupy on the map of the digital divide. However, some examples tell us about the global dimension of local practices among migrant populations. Differences in the ICT acces and use among countries are remarkable, data on gender reveal few differences about the places where computers or the Internet are used, other researchers show gender differences in the preferences for typologies of video games, in the perceptions of them and in the motivations leading to playing. So far we have ignored if differences also exist among Spanish and foreign immigrant women or men, or what are the differences in use among the foreign populations coming from different countries. Age, however, emerges as a clear factor of unequal access to ICT, especially in using the Internet. Finally, class differences concerning Internet access are only mentioned in recent research projects.

So far in Spain we do not have much more information, neither research, on these issues; therefore, it is urgent to develop research about the influence of these factors that may allow us to reconstruct the extent of the digital divide and analyse it in more detail. This will have to do with the access and the abilities of the less favoured groups, but it also has to do with the lack of recognition of children and young people's uses in general and the specific uses developed by those children and young people in migration processes and their communicative, affective and identity needs.