The previous two chapters have illustrated how the establishment of settlements at the urban margins impacts how urbanization unfolds. We have emphasized the political economy that underpins these processes of camp urbanization and elaborated its spatio-material and infrastructural dimensions. As a counterpoint to the ‘people as infrastructure’ experiences analysed above, this chapter provides insights into the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) that have penetrated city margins around the globe. Widespread and relatively accessible mobile communications networks might be seen in contrast to the numerous gaps or shortcomings in the infrastructures explored in the previous chapter. Gandy's (2004: 372– 3) early contention that the ‘digital divide’ is less pronounced than the ‘persistent and widening disparities in access to basic services’ is confirmed in Somali cities, at least in terms of (basic) mobile telephony and related innovations such as mobile money.

Somalia has long been integrated into the seemingly ever-expanding global consumer market for information and communication services and technologies. Here, we explore how mobile phones are used by poor inmigrant populations. We discuss the effects of continuous ICT expansion, focusing on the links between ubiquitous mobile telephony, human mobility, labour and money. Experiences of migration, work and money transfers are increasingly shaped by ICTs, as these facilitate information flows, including around labour needs and access to urban labour markets (Figure 5.1). They are also increasingly enabling financial transfers. While people rely on their bodies and labour power to establish settlements and infrastructural connections, they also increasingly depend on ICTs to navigate through and around infrastructural gaps, and to access services and resources. These technologies facilitate movement into and around the city, both in determining migration routes, and city selection and settlement. ICTs have a profound impact on people's working lives and shape the constant struggle for self-entrepreneurship and employment in urban labour markets – struggles that, as we show, continue to be structured by gender, ethnicity and race, and contribute to class dynamics, all of which intersect with ‘local’ versus ‘outsider’ differentiations.

Information about work opportunities, payments for labour or delivery of humanitarian aid are in Somalia and Somaliland often transferred through mobile technologies and networks. This development also shapes how people engage with and generate (urban) spaces, at the margins and beyond.