ABSTRACT
Not surprisingly, visual images have become central to the ways in which migrants view and represent themselves in a variety of digital arenas, including but not limited to social media. When thinking of the role of visual images in migrants’ everyday lives and their relationship to digital media, the notion of visuality becomes particularly apt, as it implies the existence of mundane, repetitive acts of visual production (whether as an image-maker or as a viewer) together with an engagement with the politics of representation in its own right (Mirzoeff, 2006). Rather than simply aiding us to reflect on how migrants may be represented or may self-represent in digital media, speaking of visuality helps us think through some of the ways in which their visibility is imbricated with issues of agency and power. This is exactly the type of intellectual work that Chapter 10 by Daniela Jaramillo-Dent, Amanda Alencar and Yan Asadchy, Chapter 12 by Estrella Sendra and Chapter 13 by Moé Suzuki in the section on Visuality and Digital Media do, as they move beyond conceptions of the visual as a way to promote or altogether “other” particular identities to engage in more depth with the problems and potentials of digital media imagery in the pursuit of a sense of shared identity and belonging among migrants.
