The Internet has revolutionized our economies, societies, and everyday lives. Many social phenomena are no longer the same as they were in the pre‐Internet era: they have been “Internetized.” We define the Internetization of international migration, and we investigate it by exploring the links between the Internet and migration outcomes all along the migration path, from migration intentions to actual migration. Our analyses leverage a number of sources, both at the micro‐ and the macro‐level, including the Gallup World Poll, the Arab Barometer, data from the International Telecommunication Union, the Italian population register, and unique register data from a migrant reception center in Southern Italy. We also distinguish between economic migrants—those who leave their country of origin with the aim of seeking better economic opportunities elsewhere—and political migrants—those who are forced to leave their countries of origin for political or conflict‐related reasons. Our findings point to a consistently positive relationship between the diffusion of the Internet, migration intentions, and migration behaviors, supporting the idea that the Internet is not necessarily a driving force of migration per se, but rather an enabling “supportive agent.” These associations are particularly relevant for economic migrants, at least for migration intentions. Further analyses underscore the importance of the Internet in providing a key informational channel which helps to define clearer migration trajectories.

中文翻译：

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国际移民互联网化

互联网彻底改变了我们的经济、社会和日常生活。许多社会现象不再像前互联网时代那样：它们已经“互联网化”了。我们定义了国际移民的互联网化，我们通过探索互联网与移民结果之间的联系来研究它，从移民意图到实际移民的整个移民路径。我们的分析利用了微观和宏观层面的许多来源，包括盖洛普世界民意调查、阿拉伯晴雨表、来自国际电信联盟的数据、意大利人口登记册以及来自移民接待中心的独特登记数据在意大利南部。我们还区分了经济移民——那些离开原籍国以在别处寻求更好的经济机会的人——和政治移民——那些因政治或与冲突相关的原因被迫离开原籍国的人。我们的研究结果表明，互联网的传播、迁移意图和迁移行为之间始终存在正相关关系，支持互联网本身不一定是迁移的驱动力，而是一种有利的“支持代理”的观点。这些协会与经济移民尤其相关，至少对于移民意向而言是这样。进一步的分析强调了互联网在提供有助于定义更清晰的迁移轨迹的关键信息渠道方面的重要性。