‘There Is No Need to Come to the Country at All!’ Conceptualization of Digitalized Migration: An Ethnographic Research on Turkish e‐Residents

ABSTRACT This study examines the intersection of digitalization, migration, mobility and citizenship through the case of Estonia's e‐Residency program and proposes the concept of digitalized migration. Unlike conventional migration approaches centred on physical relocation, the study conceptualizes digitalized migration as a selective transnational process in which individuals remain spatially immobile while integrating into another national context through digital infrastructures. Within this framework, e‐Residency is analysed as a form of mobility reconfigured through digital technologies that shares characteristics with migration. Empirically, the study is based on digital ethnographic observations of the online interaction networks of Turkish citizen e‐Residents, complemented by in‐depth interviews. The findings show that e‐Residency produces transnational forms of subjectivity through digitalized business practices, virtual mobility and platform‐based state‐citizen relations. Although Turkish e‐Residents pursue migration aspirations digitally, they remain embedded in local socio‐economic and political contexts, as their engagement with e‐Residency is primarily driven by economic opportunities rather than socio‐cultural integration. At the same time, e‐Residency operates as a digital border regime, limiting its cosmopolitan promise through selective access mechanisms, digital skill requirements and neoliberal mobility norms.