Networks of Belonging examines how digitally networked communication technologies create spaces of belonging for people of refugee and migrant backgrounds in resettlement contexts, focusing on Australia.
The internet has become a primary facilitator for social connection, transforming how displaced and mobile people maintain relationships across distance. For communities facing significant barriers to connection, such as globally dispersed social networks and often the inability to return to their place of origin, digital technologies can offer vital pathways to belonging and social inclusion in new environments. The book begins by considering the history of refugee and migrant inclusion in Australia and the historical practice of migrant letter-writing, as a critical analogue reference point to today’s digital ubiquity. By investigating how communication technologies enable access to social connection, particularly among those navigating resettlement, the research offers lived perspectives on the evolving nature of digital sociality and its importance for refugee and migrant communities. Three key dyadic relationships of interstitiality frame the analysis: Inclusion-exclusion, digital-physical, and local-global. This approach highlights the nuances of situated lives and personal narratives gathered through qualitative interviews and photo-elicitation with people of refugee and migrant backgrounds in Melbourne, Australia, while advocating for a relational understanding of social inclusion, exclusion, and belonging; digital and physical sociality; and a local and global sense of place. This book will be of value to students and researchers across multiple fields, including media and communications, refugee and migration studies, social inclusion, multiculturalism and belonging, and digital communication.
By:
Estelle Boyle
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 570g
ISBN: 9781032767161
ISBN 10: 1032767162
Series: Digital Diaspora Series
Pages: 206
Publication Date: 28 August 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Introduction: Mobilities, Migrants and Media Part I: History of Refugee and Migrant Inclusion and Connection 2. Refugee and Migrant Inclusion from ‘White Australia’ to Post-Pandemic 3. Migrant Letters as Foundational Networks of Transnational Communication Part II: The Inclusion-Exclusion Dyad 4. Refugee and Migrant Social Inclusion and Belonging in Australia 5. Refugee and Migrant Social Exclusion in Australia Part III: The Digital-Physical and Local-Global Dyads 6. Digital Communication and Interstitial Spaces for Refugee and Migrant Connection 7. Place, Belonging and Home in Local-Global Settings 8. Conclusion: Communication and Belonging in Refugee and Migrant Lives
Estelle Boyle is a Research Associate at Monash University, Australia, and a Teaching Associate in Media and Communications at The University of Melbourne. Her research examines how contemporary digital communications technologies impact social inclusion and belonging for resettled refugees and migrants. Her work spans the intersections of digital communication and connectivity, digital and social inclusion, migration and refugee experiences, belonging, and multiculturalism.
Reviews for Networks of Belonging: Refugee and Migrant Inclusion in Australia, and Digital Communication
This book presents a nuanced and sensitive analysis of the complex relational dynamics of establishing and maintaining belonging and connection across local and global scales. Boyle’s work combines a careful tracing of the historical roots of Australia’s “enduring architecture” of inclusion and exclusion with a rich analysis of the words and photographs of refugees and migrants in Melbourne, making it a must-read for all scholars of migrant belonging, transnational relations and contemporary digital cultures. Leah Williams Veazey, Research Fellow, Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Sydney
