Vulnerability, Digital Technologies and International Law: Reflections on Contemporary Migration Flows

Abstract

Migration, considered a ‘total social fact’, remains one of the most debated topics in contemporary society. Unfortunately, migration is not always a positive experience for everyone. Certain categories of people, such as women, children, persecuted ethnic minorities, and those fleeing conflict zones, widespread violence and natural disasters, are undoubtedly more exposed to its adverse effects. The socially disadvantaged conditions of migrants can also overlap with the risk of exclusion from digital literacy. ‘Digital availability’ is an essential asset for networking through the entire period of migration, which varies according to the departure and destination contexts and skills of use. Vulnerability can be a key concept when it comes to exploring the connection between migration processes and increasing digitisation, with both positive and negative consequences. Despite the frequent use of the term ‘vulnerability’ in political and legal discourse, its normative content is neither always clear nor universally accepted. Often treated as a self-explanatory condition, it is habitually used to distinguish migrants according to specific groups based on precise characteristics – especially refugees or asylum seekers – without specifying how the notion is conceptually understood or defined. The aim of our work is to provide some suggestions about three different concepts of vulnerability (subjective, situational and structural), the impact of the legal concept of vulnerability on migration processes and how situations of vulnerability are sometimes accentuated by the spread of media and social media.

Keywords

• migration processes
• increasing digitisation
• international law
• digital technology
• refugees
• asylum seekers