Summary: | The mobile phone intensifies transnational communication, and alters the experience of migration. Omnipresent in social housing converted from migrant workers’ hostels, it affects the space of the accommodation, and transforms social practices. In this type of housing, where several people usually share what the management companies qualify as « individual » lodgings, that is, 1-person flats, what is the importance of the mobile phone in the process of constructing a « home », and what roles does it play? This article is based on observation of digital practices in these lodgings, with a view to defining the relations between the resident and the telephone as they develop over the day and depending on the other people present. It draws the conclusion that the telephone is a tool, and a basis for constructing a sense of « home ».
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