Abstract
As globalisation continues unabated, migration in general and student migration in particular have intensified worldwide. Mobile communication technologies are important links between migrant students and their left-behind family and friends. This chapter seeks to highlight the complex relationships between the students’ migrant status and their technology use, as well as between technology and the family in Vietnamese transnational households. This chapter presents contextualised accounts of three Vietnamese migrant students’ media use over a two-week period, drawing data from a one-week media monitoring exercise, a one-week media deprivation exercise, semi-structured interviews and daily media diaries. The study found that the Vietnamese migrant students appropriated a variety of communication technologies to connect with their home country, which helped to energise family interactions, sustain family ties and facilitate parental and sibling mediation, thereby supporting bonding within Vietnamese transnational families. Moreover, the technologies also helped the students to build social capital with their left-behind friends in Vietnam.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
ACPET. (2013). Economic contribution of international students executive summary. Retrieved from http://www.acpet.edu.au/uploads/files/Reports_Submissions/213/Economic-Contribution-Executive-Summary.pdf
Baas, M. (2014). Victims or profiteers? Issues of migration, racism and violence among Indian students in Melbourne. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 55(2), 212–225.
Biswas, R. R. (2014). Reverse migrant entrepreneurs in India: Motivations, trajectories and realities. In G. Tejada, U. Bhattacharya, B. Khadria, C. Kuptsch (Eds.), Indian skilled migration and development: To Europe and back (pp. 285–307). New Delhi: Springer.
Cemalcilar, Z., Falbo, T., & Stapleton, L. M. (2005). Cyber communication: A new opportunity for international students’ adaptation? International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(1), 91–110.
Chib, A., Wilkin, H. A., & Hua, S. R. M. (2013). International migrant workers’ use of mobile phones to seek social support in Singapore. Information Technologies & International Development, 9(4), 19–34.
Chib, A., Malik, S., Aricat, R. G., & Kadir, S. Z. (2014). Migrant mothering and mobile phones: Negotiations of transnational identity. Mobile Media & Communication, 2(1), 73–93.
Clark, N. (2013). Vietnam: Trends in international and domestic education. World Education News & Reviews. Retrieved from http://wenr.wes.org/213/06/vietnam-trends-in-international-and-domestic-education/
Constantine, M. G., Kindaichi, M., Okazaki, S., Gainor, K. A., & Baden, A. L. (2005). A qualitative investigation of the cultural adjustment experiences of Asian international college women. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 11(2), 162.
Gupta, T. D., Man, G., Mirchandani, K., & Ng, R. (2014). Class Borders: Chinese and South Asian Canadian professional women navigating the labor market. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 23(1), 55.
Hirsch, E. (1992). The long term and the short term of domestic consumption. In R. Silverstone & E. Hirsch (Eds.), Consuming technologies: Media and information in domestic spaces (pp. 195–210). London: Routledge. Retrieved from the Taylor & Francis e-Library.
Hjorth, L. (2007). Home and away: A case study of the use of Cyworld mini-Hompy by Korean students studying in Australia. Asian Studies Review, 31(4), 397–407.
Hondagneu-Sotelo, P., & Avila, E. (1997). “I'm here, but I'm there” the meanings of Latina transnational motherhood. Gender & Society, 11(5), 548–571.
Kline, S. L., & Liu, F. (2005). The influence of comparative media use on acculturation, acculturative stress, and family relationships of Chinese international students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(4), 367–390.
Lang, X., Oreglia, E., & Thomas, S. (2010, September). Social practices and mobile phone use of young migrant workers. In Proceedings of the 12th international conference on human computer interaction with mobile devices and services, (pp. 59–62). New York: ACM.
Lee, J. W. Y., Kim, B., Lee, T. K., & Kim, M. S. (2012). Uncovering the use of facebook during an exchange program. China Media Research, 8(4), 62–76.
Lemor, A. M. R. (2006). Making a ‘home’. The domestication of information and communication technologies in single parents’ households. In T. Berker, M. Hartmann, Y. Punie, & K. J. Ward (Eds.), Domestication of media and technology (pp. 165–184). UK: McGraw-Hill Education.
Lie, M., & Sørensen, K. H. (2002). Making technology of our own? Domesticating technology into everyday life (pp. 1–30). Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.
Lim, S. S. (2008). Technology domestication in the Asian homestead: Comparing the experiences of middle class families in China and South Korea. East Asian Science, Technology and Society, 2(2), 189–209.
Lim, K., & Meier, E. B. (2012). International students’ use of social network services in the new culture: A case study with Korean youths in the United States. Asia Pacific Education Review, 13(1), 113–120.
Madianou, M. (2012). Migration and the accentuated ambivalence of motherhood: The role of ICTs in Filipino transnational families. Global Networks, 12(3), 277–295.
Madianou, M., & Miller, D. (2011). Mobile phone parenting: Reconfiguring relationships between Filipina migrant mothers and their left-behind children. New Media & Society, 13(3), 457–470.
Mazzarol, T., & Soutar, G. N. (2002). “Push-pull” factors influencing international student destination choice. International Journal of Educational Management, 16(2), 82–90.
NAFSA. (2013). The international student economic value tool. Retrieved from http://www.nafsa.org/Explore_International_Education/Impact/Data_And_Statistics/The_International_Student_Economic_Value_Tool/
Romero, N., Markopoulos, P., Van Baren, J., De Ruyter, B., Ijsselsteijn, W., & Farshchian, B. (2007). Connecting the family with awareness systems. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 11(4), 299–312.
Sidhu, R. K. (2011). Re-thinking student migration trends, trajectories and rights. National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute. Retrieved from http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/docs/wps/wps11_157.pdf
Silverstone, R., Hirsch, E., & Morley, D. (1992). Information and communication technologies and the moral economy of the household. In R. Silverstone, & E. Hirsch (Eds.), Consuming technologies: Media and information in domestic spaces (pp. 12–28). London: Routledge. Retrieved from the Taylor & Francis e-Library.
Thomas, M., & Lim, S. S. (2011). On maids and mobile phones: ICT use by female migrant workers in Singapore and its policy implications. In J. E. Katz (Eds.), Mobile communication: Dimensions of social policy (pp. 175–190). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
UNESCO Institute of Statistics. (2014). Global flow of tertiary-level students. Retrieved from http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/international-student-flow-viz.aspx
Uy-Tioco, C. (2007). Overseas Filipino workers and text messaging: Reinventing transnational mothering. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 21(2), 253–265.
Wood, N., & King, R. (2002). Media and migration: An overview. In N. Wood & R. King, (Eds.), Media and migration: Constructions of mobility and difference (pp. 1–22). London: Routledge
World Bank. (2013). Migration and remittances. Retrieved from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20648762~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html
Wyche, S. P., & Grinter, R. E. (2012). This is how we do it in my country: A study of computer-mediated family communication among Kenyan migrants in the united states. Proceedings of the ACM 212 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, New York, pp. 87–96.
Yeoh, B., & Lin, W. (2012). Rapid growth in Singapore’s immigration population brings policy challenges. Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=887
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pham, B., Lim, S.S. (2016). Empowering Interactions, Sustaining Ties: Vietnamese Migrant Students’ Communication with Left-Behind Families and Friends. In: Lim, S. (eds) Mobile Communication and the Family. Mobile Communication in Asia: Local Insights, Global Implications. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7441-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7441-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7439-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7441-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)