A disconnected life in indeterminate limbo
The restrictions of certain digital technologies in detention centres, like smartphones, and indefinite waiting, increase the feeling of being excluded from the outside world. This is shown in Miriana Cascone’s thesis in Media and Communication Studies.
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Daily life in the Swedish Migration Agency’s detention centres is characterized by various forms of surveillance technology. Photo: Istockphoto
In her thesis “Detain(ed): Technology and Migrants in Swedish Detention Centres” Miriana Cascone has investigated how migrants use various digital media and technology while in the Swedish Migration Agency’s detention centres.
“When we talk about migration, we usually talk about mobility. However, detention centres are spaces of immobility and indefinite waiting, and I found it interesting to include the media practices of immobility”, she says.
Interviews with more than 50 migrants
The research highlights two key aspects that define the fundamental nature of the detention system: technology and indefinite waiting. As a basis for the thesis she has conducted more than 50 interviews with migrants, some inside and some outside detention centres in Sweden.
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Miriana Cascone. Photo: Private
“Smartphones are prohibited within the centres. According to the Migration Agency, this is a necessary measure to safeguard the privacy of other detained migrants, as photos could be taken or audio recordings made.”
However, detained migrants must be guaranteed the possibility to stay in touch with the outside world, she explains, and are provided with a ‘dumbphone’, a phone without a camera and internet access, while internet access is provided via computers located in a communal room which the detainees must share. In the TV rooms there are also radios and books, and in the centres there are other technological solutions for surveillance technology, to manage daily life.
“The absence of a smartphone means, above all, a connection that is neither constant nor spontaneous. This has a number of implications: not only do detained migrants, but also their relationships – which are often transnational – have to be organised, for example by arranging specific times for video calls or by using other platforms accessible via a computer.”
Institutionalisation of waiting
Other implications, explains Miriana Cascone, is a sense of exclusion from the outside world, in which the migrants cannot participate either physically or digitally as they used to. This also gives rise to a sense of helplessness, which is further exacerbated by the state of indefinite limbo in which they find themselves. She calls it a form of institutionalisation of waiting, which is fuelled by the technologies that are present, and absent.
“However, what also emerges is the ability of detained migrants to re-familiarise with certain technologies and practices, even if they do not wish to do so, and the ability to find creative solutions to stay connected.”
Miriana Cascone hopes that the study can shed some light on how the detention system works and its impact on people’s daily lives.
“I felt it was necessary, given that there was little literature on the subject, to open up this discussion to detention centres and the technologies present and those absent, and how these implement and feed the detention regime,” she says.
More information
Miriana Cascone defended her thesis in Media and Communication studies in March 2026. The thesis ”Detain(ed): Media Technologies and Migrants in Swedish Detention Centres” can be read here. External link, opens in new window.
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- Page last updated
- 2026-03-26
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- Communication and Public Relations