E-migrants: the pressure of digitalization on elderly migrants

Against a backdrop of tightening immigration policies and restricted access to social rights, this article examines how elderly migrants cope with the push towards digitalization and the closure of service counters at key public services. It draws on an ethnographic study of organizations working with elderly migrants in the Parisian region, supplemented by semi-structured interviews. Analysing the case of the Solidarity Allowance for the Elderly (ASPA), we show that digitalization and the strengthening of control mechanisms operate as a barrier to inclusion within the national sphere, where the state requires immigrants to continually prove their presence and their – almost exclusive – loyalty to France by providing a range of digital evidence. These immigrants thus become ‘e-migrants’, distant from both their social rights and their ties outside France. These changes lead to the fragmentation of the administrative work required to secure rights, now spread across a variety of players – administration, social workers, trade unions, relatives, etc. – and increase elderly migrants’ dependence on them. Proving their eligibility for social rights thus becomes a laborious task, as they must go to great lengths to familiarize themselves with digital tools and provide evidence, which sometimes even leads to a (temporary) return to paid work. We argue that these developments represent a further step towards workfare policies.