The role of new technologies, including mobile phones and social media, in migration moved to the fore during the European migrant crisis in 2015. Images of Syrians fleeing civil war, along with Iraqis and Afghans, guided by their mobile phones became common in the international media. While much has been made about the importance of mobile phones for migrants, including by humanitarian organizations, what evidence do we have about the role such technologies have in migration, particularly for migrants in, and from, Africa? This article uses a semi-systematic approach to evaluate the strength of the evidence around the use (or not) of mobile phones and social media in the migratory pathways of Africans, primarily to Europe. This includes detailed systematic database searches, submissions from experts such as academics and practitioners as well as the use of snowball citation searches. We argue that given the intensity of the claims affirming the role of new technologies in migration, the evidence remains surprisingly anecdotal and weak. In short, the use of mobile phones, and social media, on migratory pathways cannot be generalized and further investigation is urgently required to better determine whether, and how, such technologies are shaping and transforming migration in the ways so frequently argued.

在 2015 年的欧洲移民危机期间，包括手机和社交媒体在内的新技术在移民中的作用被推到了前台。叙利亚人与伊拉克人和阿富汗人一起逃离内战的图像在手机的引导下变得普遍媒体。虽然包括人道主义组织在内的很多人都谈到了移动电话对移民的重要性，但我们有什么证据证明这些技术在移民中的作用，特别是对进出非洲的移民而言？本文使用半系统方法来评估有关在非洲人（主要是欧洲）的迁徙路径中使用（或不使用）手机和社交媒体的证据强度。这包括详细的系统数据库搜索，来自学者和从业者等专家的提交以及雪球引文搜索的使用。我们认为，鉴于肯定新技术在移民中的作用的主张的强度，证据仍然令人惊讶地轶事和薄弱。简而言之，移动电话和社交媒体在移民路径上的使用不能一概而论，迫切需要进一步调查以更好地确定此类技术是否以及如何以经常争论的方式塑造和改变移民。