Toward an understanding of community connectedness: the role of ICTs

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be instrumental to the sense of community connectedness of migrants: being aware of the daily occurrences in their home communities. Whereas formerly, migrant workers were using the postal service and telephone as the preferred channels of communication, nowadays the penetration of the Internet is likely to change the panorama. Focusing mainly on phone-based communication, this work analyzes the notion of community connectedness from the perspective of people from the municipality of Juchipila, Mexico now living in the USA. We highlight three communication cycles that can influence the sense of community connectedness over time. Finally, this work concludes by discussing the role played by ICTs in the level of community connectedness.