Contemporary migrations as social movements: An analysis based on the media as loci of the emergence of the migrants’ citizenship

Abstract

This paper discusses the configuration of contemporary migrations as social movements in their relationship to mediatic processes and the dynamics of intercultural, cosmopolitan and communicational citizenship of the migrants. Starting from the partial results of two pieces of research concerning the media and Latin American immigrants in the cities of Porto Alegre and Barcelona, three perspectives in which contemporary migrations appear to be related to mediatic processes are analyzed: (1) the constructions about the migrants in the framework of the processes of mediatization of contemporary migrations; (2) the interaction of the migrants with the media being configured by their migratory experiences; (3) the creation and management by the migrants of policies of mediatic visibility in the mass media and/or alternative or communal media.

Key words: media, contemporary migrations, citizenship.