The disrupted polymedia of disconnected migrant: Armenian labor migrants navigating their transnational lives in Russia
(2026) MKVM13 20261Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
- Abstract
- This study examines how sanctions following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the Russian government's response to them, have disrupted the communicative infrastructure that Armenian seasonal labor migrants depend on to maintain their transnational family lives. Building on and challenging Diminescu's (2008) connected migrant and Madianou and Miller's (2012) polymedia theory, the study includes eleven semi-structured interviews with male Armenian seasonal labor migrants to explore their media practices before and after 2022. Focusing on smartphones, messaging apps, VPNs, digital payments, and intensified surveillance, the study proposes two new concepts: the disconnected migrant, whose access to
communicative... (More) - This study examines how sanctions following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the Russian government's response to them, have disrupted the communicative infrastructure that Armenian seasonal labor migrants depend on to maintain their transnational family lives. Building on and challenging Diminescu's (2008) connected migrant and Madianou and Miller's (2012) polymedia theory, the study includes eleven semi-structured interviews with male Armenian seasonal labor migrants to explore their media practices before and after 2022. Focusing on smartphones, messaging apps, VPNs, digital payments, and intensified surveillance, the study proposes two new concepts: the disconnected migrant, whose access to
communicative infrastructure is surveilled and constrained, disrupting migrant’s permanent presence and accessibility, and disrupted polymedia, where the limited choice of technology, apps, and platforms replaces functional choice with an emotional one when communicating. The findings show that platform bans, internet instability, mandatory location tracking, and state-promoted surveillance apps together transform the phone from a communication device to a control device. In response, migrants develop adaptive strategies that give them agency, but because those strategies are practiced within a limited system also exploit their vulnerability. This study argues that for migrants whose transnational family lives depend on connectivity, the disruption of it is not a side effect of sanctions but a shaping factor in their everyday lives and has largely been ignored in sanctions discourse. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9229657
- author
- Ghulinyan, Ani LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- Armenian labor migrants navigating their transnational lives in Russia
- course
- MKVM13 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- migration, sanctions, media, transnational families
- language
- English
- id
- 9229657
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-03 11:03:29
- date last changed
- 2026-06-03 11:03:29
@misc{9229657,
abstract = {{This study examines how sanctions following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the Russian government's response to them, have disrupted the communicative infrastructure that Armenian seasonal labor migrants depend on to maintain their transnational family lives. Building on and challenging Diminescu's (2008) connected migrant and Madianou and Miller's (2012) polymedia theory, the study includes eleven semi-structured interviews with male Armenian seasonal labor migrants to explore their media practices before and after 2022. Focusing on smartphones, messaging apps, VPNs, digital payments, and intensified surveillance, the study proposes two new concepts: the disconnected migrant, whose access to
communicative infrastructure is surveilled and constrained, disrupting migrant’s permanent presence and accessibility, and disrupted polymedia, where the limited choice of technology, apps, and platforms replaces functional choice with an emotional one when communicating. The findings show that platform bans, internet instability, mandatory location tracking, and state-promoted surveillance apps together transform the phone from a communication device to a control device. In response, migrants develop adaptive strategies that give them agency, but because those strategies are practiced within a limited system also exploit their vulnerability. This study argues that for migrants whose transnational family lives depend on connectivity, the disruption of it is not a side effect of sanctions but a shaping factor in their everyday lives and has largely been ignored in sanctions discourse.}},
author = {{Ghulinyan, Ani}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The disrupted polymedia of disconnected migrant: Armenian labor migrants navigating their transnational lives in Russia}},
year = {{2026}},
}