Premium
Impact of Modern Information and Communication Tools on International Migration
Author(s) -
Kotyrlo Elena
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international migration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.681
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-2435
pISSN - 0020-7985
DOI - 10.1111/imig.12677
Subject(s) - information and communications technology , icts , immigration , the internet , human migration , developing country , business , empirical evidence , information technology , demographic economics , political science , economic growth , economics , sociology , population , computer science , demography , philosophy , epistemology , world wide web , law
Observing the dramatic increase in the flow of migrants since the 2000s, one can hypothesise that emergent access to the Internet and mobile communications has contributed to it. Indeed, information and communication technologies (ICTs) help potential migrants to overcome the strongest barrier to migration – incomplete information. In a number of studies, ICTs are found to assist migration decision‐making. An alternative view suggests that ICTs enhance the capacities to maintain working and family life across long distances. Empirical evidence for 191 countries, for the period 1995–2015, confirms the negative link between changes in ICT development and migration intensity. In the medium‐ and long‐term, the migration growth rate is lower in countries with a higher ICT growth rate. The negative link may also be attributed to immigration policy developing to face the challenges of the increased availability of information needed for undertaking migration, and to mitigate the risk of uncontrolled migration.