Abstract

This paper looks at migrant communities all over the world and the way they utilise the affordances of social media platforms to stay connected with family back home, build community and retain culture. Drawing upon two ethnographic studies from migrants seeking asylum in Germany and the Netherlands, the paper analyses to what extent social media platforms have helped migrants bridge geographic and spatial boundaries. The discussion concludes that social media has mitigated the physical and geographic separation of people through digital proximity. Affordances such as pervasive awareness and persistent contact create modalities of communication for migrants that transcend borders and create a digital togetherness, where diasporic experiences are shared and negotiated.

Introduction

The globalised society we live in today is built upon flows of migration which creates more fluid communities both on local and international levels. These diasporas may live for extended periods away from family and their original source communities. Marshall McLuhan foresaw the emergence of a society that would not be restricted by spatiality (McLuhan, 2017). The development of networked technologies has resulted in a much smaller world, collapsing time and space. The full potential of which is constrained now largely by political and religious power and controlled borders of statehood. The devices and platforms that exist within this eco system provide opportunities for staying engaged with home community as well as commitment to new and existing social and community groups like never before (Hampton, 2015).

A networked tool that has become pervasive and influential in constructing the virtual spaces where interaction and community building takes place are social media platforms. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have created environments for the exchange of information and relationship building, whilst transcending both temporal and spatial boundaries (Ponzanesi, 2020). Furthermore, they have been an important tool for the maintenance and development of these communities, creating networked relationships which allows them to retain a level of connection despite geographic boundaries. Networked relationships refer to the connections that are formed and maintained in online spaces, through the use of networked technologies (Wellman, 2012). In this essay, I argue that social media platforms have become an essential tool for global migrant communities to stay connected and support each other. Whilst political narratives – legitimate and illegitimate, have also invaded these platforms and led to public calls for controls and censorship to be increased, the duality of good and bad must be balanced. This paper focuses on the positive contribution of these platforms for connecting an empowering individuals who have left their physical communities and spaces, needing to connect others with shared experiences and integrate into communities with different cultural beliefs and politics.

Background

It has been argued that traditionally, communities have assisted to form and maintain themselves utilising what has been described as a ‘third place’ (Butler et al, 2017). This includes physical locations or place-based spaces such as cafe’s, bars and other culturally significant meeting locations. The third place is a concept proposed by Ray Oldenburg (Oldenburg, 1999). The term refers to neutral social landmarks between home and office where people go to meet each other and form social connections. In his study, Oldenburg revealed a set of characteristics that define what makes up a third place. Those are: neutral ground, leveler, conversation, accessibility and accommodation, regulars, low profile, playful mood, and home away from home (Oldenburg, 1999). These characteristics were identified by Oldenberg as the most important foundational features of place based meeting spaces that were also third spaces. In today’s cosmopolitan societies, communities have now expanded far beyond the localised neighbourhood and become an amalgamation of virtual diasporas and friendships across many different borders (Wellman et al., 2006). Since the Second World War, transnational migration and international mobility has been a major feature afforded by the liberal national order that has dominated the west over the last two decades (Money, 2021). This mobility has freed people from the close-knit bonds of traditional community and allowed them to find work, support and opportunities in larger, more distributed networks (Hampton, 2015). With this trend comes increased isolation and less support for individuals and families.

Networked technologies, pervasive contact and awareness

Virtual spaces play an increasingly important role in maintaining the bonds formed across these sparse and geographically distributed networks, helping individuals overcome the large distances that separate their communities (Hampton and Wellman, 2003). In order to fully appreciate how and why social media has been successful in supporting these distributed global communities, it is useful to examine their design affordances. Affordances are a way of understanding the social dynamic between the user and the architecture of a given platform. This perspective helps understand how new media platforms can govern the way users communicate (Boyd, 2011). Two key affordances used by social media platforms is what scholars describe as ambient awareness and pervasive contact (Hampton, 2015). Pervasive awareness is the way platforms present the knowledge of interests, location, opinions and activities of one’s social contacts and ties (Hampton, 2015). It’s a simultaneous two way dynamic that involves both broadcasting ones own views and interests via communications and monitoring content created by others that attracts us (Hampton, 2015). Using this strategy, individuals connected to the network can provide a sense of availability to other users in the network. Persistent contact allows users to maintain contact over time and space, signalling their commitment to a given social, cultural group (Hampton, 2015). This persistence and ambient pervasive awareness has the potential to link lives across borders and facilitate contact that “mirrors” normal family functions. In a physical family setting the individual is engaged differently in what is going across time within the family group but the shared physical space creates that sense of others being ‘available’ if needed. Social media creates the sense of not being alone if other group members are active or posting around the clock – there is always somebody home! For many people, including migrant diaspora communities, they use virtual spaces just like third places (Markiewicz, 2019). This is in response to the ruptured family ties and displacement faced by individuals all over the globe that have been removed from their culture and community as a result of globalisation. In these cases, virtual spaces have the capacity to act as virtual third space that is accessible, contactable and somewhere for them to be vulnerable and authentic.

Case Study Analysis

Migrants frequently use social media to create and participate in communities to retain connection with their homeland and also to make new relations in their host countries. This is done through using a suite of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp (Ponzanesi, 2020). In order to illustrate how these social media platforms can bridge communities and mediate a feeling of togetherness, a set of specific users has been identified. Donya Alinejad’s ethnographic analysis of Turkish-Dutch migrants provides and insight into how long social media platforms shape transnational relationships for this particular community (Alinejad, 2019). The research was focused on the social media platforms and the mobile use practices of Turkish-Dutch migrant participants. In family relationships, it was found that communicating with family through social media produces experiences of intimacy. Participants used platforms that allowed for intensive messaging such as WhatsApp and Facebook to communicate with members of their family and friends back home. It was found that they used different platforms for different reasons. WhatsApp was used to transmit communication to family quickly outside the workplace as their busy work schedules left few openings for transnationally “doing family” online. Facebook was used predominantly to stay in touch with friends and acquaintances. Alinejad (2019) defines this as a ‘careful’ mode of communication, which creates a level of mediated co-presence for family members between the Netherlands and Turkey. This project challenges the dynamics of mediation and highlights the importance of social media platforms in providing a channel of constant and immediate communication for diaspora communities.

Beyond maintaining established familial and friendship relationships, migrant communities also use social media platforms to keep up with their native culture and strengthen ethnic ties. This helps to preserve ethnicity under threat and prevent becoming isolated (Ponzanesi, 2020). Examples of this can be seen in a case study conducted by Saskia Witteborn who interviewed African migrants living in Munich, Germany. One of the participants, Aisha, said she used Facebook to find events in Munich for people from African backgrounds (Witteborn, 2015). Facebook connected her and members of the African diaspora to urban life in Germany. Social media enabled her to move beyond the isolation experienced by many migrants and reconnect with her culture through music events. It created a new way of expanding existing networks and for many was the only way of meeting new people due to the isolated nature of shared accommodations and limited financial means. Aisha presented herself as a mother, friend and woman who was open to connection and responsive to engagement online. Relating to others in the African diaspora community via social media became second nature to Aisha and was part of the process that revived her culture abroad and maintain cultural roots (Witteborn, 2015). These connections can then be transferred to the physical space by meeting up at music festivals an connections become more concrete in building actual communities and friendship groups in the new country. These groups also share important information about safety and security and commercial information such as where to get your car serviced of hair cuts by expatriates of ones own country.

It could be argued that the social media platform in these examples also operated as a third-place online akin to Oldenburg’s (1999) concept. For Aisha in the example the virtual space indeed met the following characteristics from Oldenburg’s 199 criteria ‘neutral ground, leveler, conversation, accessibility and regulars, low profile, playful mood, and home away from home’ because it provided a place she could find others with shared life experiences, culture and language.

These examples show how social media allows for the creation of a virtual space that serves as a bridge not only to homeland communities, but also to other diasporic communities within their host country. In this sense, digital media reinforces the diaspora community through practices and connectivity with the homeland that were not possible before (Hegde, 2016). It’s important to note that social media isn’t a perfect replacement for the physical connection non displaced communities experience, migrants and refugees still experience a disjuncture despite their new connectedness. In many cases, diaspora can be seen as the ‘margins of the state’, looking at the practices of different migrant communities online offers us an insight into the ‘ways in which the conceptual boundaries of the state are extended and remade in the image of networked technology.

Conclusion

We live in a world of increased voluntary transnational movement (migration) as well as involuntary displacement of people due to war or persecution. This was interrupted in a significant way by the pandemic, but already the world is opening up again to enable economies and commerce to thrive. The essay has argued that social media platforms such as Facebook have become an essential tool for global diaspora communities to mobilise, empower and build capacity. New digital technologies have transformed the speed and level of connectivity that can be achieved between individuals.

The experience of migration and the distance experienced by migrants has been reshaped and mediated in new ways thanks to the speed and connectivity provided by new and emerging digital technologies. It has been shown that geographic distance no longer breaks down the connection between communities like it was once able to. Networked technology and the social media platforms that they host, have the ability to collapse time and space, creating a bridge of digital proximity for users in the network. People located in the global south and global north are able to utilise these affordances to their full extent via social media platforms. In the case studies discussed above, it’s been shown that these technologies and platforms have reshaped the way communities are constructed and sustained across vast geographic distances and also local urban or regional centres. New connections are created across many different networks which allow diaspora communities to maintain ties with their homeland, whilst also forming new relationships in their host country. This challenges the old idea of diaspora facing unrepairable displacement when migrating abroad.

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