Mongolian women’s communication chains for future movement

This study is about the ways Mongolian migrant women in South Korea used ICTs to maintain transnational family communication and plan future movement during a period of immobility imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The author conceptualizes the extensive virtual interactions connecting migrant and non-migrant family members through, Transnational ICT-based Communication Chains (TICCs). Findings of the study showed that the family video groups that migrant women used to communicate helped to plan future movement. after the borders reopened, including timing it, waiting for it, and trading turns. These ICT-based chains acted as channels by which women members, who were leading the communique as digital kinkeepers, deftly navigated family relations and (im)mobilities. The article highlights how the communication chain operated within the family migration project during the pandemic to sustain economic relations within Northeast Asia and spur regional circulation. The author challenges mainstream theories about transnational family communication at the nexus of gender to illuminate migrant women’s expressive and strategic communication systems for future migration.