Refugees enacting (digital) citizenship through placemaking and care practices near and far

Abstract

This article explores how refugees enact (digital) citizenship through placemaking and care practices, when geographically close or at a distance. It is based on ethnographic research in Vienna, and it uses participant observation, narrative interviews, and digital diaries as key research methods. In this article, I argue that digital infrastructure is crucial for refugees’ care and placemaking practices that in turn shape political subjectivities and hold the creative potential to enact citizenship from below. Through these transnational care and placemaking practices, which are closely connected to new information and communication technologies, refugees navigate care and border regimes and build belonging and citizenry, ultimately enacting citizenship from below. This article thereby brings together discussions from the field of care and migration studies, and in particular from digital migration studies, generating a dialogue around citizenship across these fields.