Today I'm publishing another old piece related to global social trends and significance of the expansion of web capabilities with the social web. This one was written in 2013 as well, for an advanced ethnic relations class in Sociology. Once again, this work is NOT PEER REVIEWED, but I invite any comments or critiques on the content. :)
Migrant 2.0 – How Web 2.0 Ideals and Social Media Use Have Shaped Contemporary Migration Flows
Written by Kris Jones December 2013.
The development of the Internet over the past several decades has had a profound effect on many areas of life globally as the technology and access to it has spread. This has also had an effect on global migrants, especially in terms of their ability to communicate with social networks back in their home country or countries they have passed through on their migration journey, and has implications on contemporary migration flows. This effect has been seen with previous developments in communication technology, though potentially to a lesser degree than more recent advancement in communication tools. In this paper, the idea of web 2.0 ideals having an effect on migration flows will be explored through the use of theories of simultaneity, social field theory and chain migration theory. Contemporary communication tools will be addressed in terms of their use for connecting geographically separated people which, in previous times would have severed social networks, and the implications of this communication in terms of transnationality, simultaneity, and social capital will be examined. The potential benefits and downfalls of these advances in communication technology will also be explored based on previous research.
The theoretical framework for this paper is a combination of theories: social field theory, chain migration theory, and simultaneity. Social field theory lies at the center of theorist Pierre Bourdieu’s writing, where an individual’s social position is located through the relationship between the rules of the field or social structure within which they reside, the individual’s habitus (a combination of factors such as one’s values, tastes, and dispositions), and capital (social, economic and cultural) (Harrington, 2005). The portion of this theory that will be highlighted is the idea of a shifting social position or social location, and the effect that an increase or decrease of social capital would have on these. Chain migration theory in short is the idea that once one person within a social network has migrated to a particular location, others within their social network are more likely to make the same migration as a result of reduced barriers to migration through this social network. This theory assumes that once migration flows have started, the flow will sustain itself over time (Somerville, 2013). Simultaneity is described as “living lives that incorporate daily activities, routines, and institutions located both in a destination country and transnationally” (Levitt, Glick Schiller, 2004, pg 2). When brought together in order to study social media use, web 2.0 ideals and maintenance of social networks, these theories provide a solid base from which to look at possibilities, uses, and effects on migrant social networks and migration patterns.
Web 2.0 refers to the recent shifts in the way the Internet is designed in order to facilitate social functions online. The development and progression of Internet design ideals toward Web 2.0 is a fairly recent shift, only having really taken hold from around 2005 onward. The shift moved the focus of webpages away from a general static text/image display layout toward more dynamic and social web content. While initially a design change began this transition, it was done with the notion of changing the ways in which the end user of these web pages would interact with the page. The shift was intended to include more interactive and social elements to encourage more collaborative and social functions such as conversation, sharing, and the production and dissemination of user-generated content. For example, instead of the user simply reading information on a static page, the introduction of comment boards may allow the user to add thoughts on the content, or join an already evolving conversation about issues within the content presented. “Social media are internet applications whose contents are primarily generated by their users. The concept of social media hence refers not only to social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook, but also to forums, weblogs, YouTube, Twitter, etc.” (Dekker and Engberson, 2012, pg 6). The shift toward web 2.0 ideals can also be described as a movement toward a participatory web, and has encouraged a focus on personal narratives through the push toward the social aspect of the web. The concept and ideals are about trusting the user, and allowing them more control over applications, information and data, “enabling them to reuse, create, and disseminate knowledge and information in a more flexible and personal way” (Tredinnick, 2008, pg 107-8).
The development of new communication technology having an effect on migrant communication and the strengthening of geographically separate social networks is not a new idea. Communication technology such as international mail has long connected migrants to families and social networks in their home countries, as did the development of the telephone along with the eventual lowering in cost for international calling. The development of the internet encompassed many of these technologies in a digital form which is easily and quickly transferred over immense geographical space, therefore allowing virtually instantaneous communication to occur cheaply, frequently, and with more media rich content (Dekker and Engberson, 2012). The ability to communicate instantaneously with the variety of rich content has the most dramatic effect on the concept of simultaneity, as individuals may be embedded within multiple social structures across geographical space at the same time.
The shift toward personal narrative advocated and encouraged by the participatory culture that engulfs web 2.0 is an interesting change from the static pages of the older web. There are several important concepts to understand about the information that is communicated through this change, which must be considered for evaluation of effectiveness of social networks in terms of accuracy of communication. One main concept is the idea that a person’s digital presence is only one potential representation of them, which is often carefully self-mediated. As discussed in Digital Information Culture, “the biography the individual reflexively holds in mind is only one ‘story’ among many other potential stories that could be told about her development as self.” (Tredinnick, 2008, pg 53). The idea of mediated versions of self have also existed previously with older communication technologies, especially for migrants who have been geographically removed from their social networks for some time. This idea was discussed in the article by Somerville, in which several migrants expressed that they did not give wholly accurate depictions of the difficulty of life in their new countries for several reasons such as feeling pressure to succeed in their migration, and to protect their family from worry about their living situation (Somerville, 2011). The concept of self-mediated representation will come up again in the discussion of possible disadvantages to social network connections. Another important concept to understand is that new communication technologies are generally understood as globalizing technologies. In fact, communication technologies are thought to be one of the main drivers of the trend of globalization in contemporary society (Chen, 2012). While globalization has many implications in terms of bringing large numbers of people together by way of communication and interdependence, it has both potential positive and negative effects on society. Chen (2012) summarizes the impacts of globalization through new media into five effects – a shrinking world, compression of time and space, close interaction in different aspects of society, global connectivity, and accelerated local and global competition and cooperation. As humanity as a whole progresses toward higher levels of globalization driven by developments such as communication technology, it is important to look at the effects that this has on migrants and migration patterns – which given that the technology is being used for communication, it makes sense to explore these ideas based on the increased connectivity to global social networks that the technology affords.
Now that general ideas of theory and explanations of the technological developments have been covered, how can social networks contribute to the movement of people from country to country, and how does this help in looking at migration as a whole? As described earlier, chain migration theory is the basis of the connection between social networks and migration. “A fundamental assumption of the migration network approach is that a multidirectional flow of information lies at the basis of every migratory process” (Dekker and Engersen, 2012, pg 5). The idea of information flow in terms of social network connections goes back to Bourdieu’s idea of social capital. Though the internet itself may not directly create social capital simply as a result of its existence, people are able to harness its communicative power in order to create social capital in a variety of ways through its use, such as the use of social media as a means of social network construction and maintenance (Katz and Rice, 2002). As more information flows through these interconnected social networks, there is more social capital available to those who are tapped into the network. Because migration flows are theorized to begin through and are stimulated by these flows of information, the barriers to migration for individuals are lowered – international migration is more likely since social capital can be translated to other social and economic benefits, those connected to these international social networks are able to “lower the costs and risks of movement and increase the expected net returns to migration” (Massey, Durand and Malone, 2002, pg 19). Dekker and Engersen (2012) also argue that web 2.0, unlike past communicative tools, is much more suited to creations of large scale social networks based on loose social connections – which may be undesirable when looking at creating and fostering close-knit friend networks, but becomes very powerful for the creation of global migration social networks. This change is because internet communicative tools are commonly used to spread information widely, and in some ways are less focused on individual communication exchanges. Because of this characteristic, internet communicative technologies are more suited than previous technologies to supporting large groups of geographically far-flung social networks of loose social ties. When thinking in terms of migrants, information relevant to migration is more likely to spread through these globally distanced, loose connections than within their local, close knit social groups, as much of this information is likely to already be overlapping amongst tight social relations. Through this, it is much simpler for previous migrants to maintain their geographically dispersed social networks, as well as for prospective migrants to utilize information through the same social networks to facilitate their migration journey more easily.
The concept of simultaneity has important ties to the notion of social capital as well. According to Levitt and Glick Schiller (2004), at the time of writing, “social field” within transnational migration research had not been defined very well. As they are looking specifically at transnationalism and simultaneity in their research, they defined the social field as “a set of multiple interlocking networks of social relationships through which ideas, practices, and resources are unequally exchanged, organized, and transformed.” (pg 9), a definition that moves beyond a conceptualization limited by nation borders, which is useful when talking about communication and social exchange through digital means as these exchanges are also rarely stopped by national borders. The change in communication technology over time, and even since the time that this study was released, has been extensive. Even so, Levitt and Glick Schiller were already describing a system in which participants in a particular social network were able to engage in simultaneity, and made the distinction that assimilation or incorporation in migrants new location and their connection to their home land are no longer binary opposites as a result of this simultaneity. They also argue that through social networks, migrants and those left behind may be affected and influenced by or even participate in multiple sets of laws and institutions regardless of their location within the same or dispersed through multiple nation states. This conceptualization clearly makes the connection between the connection and maintenance of long distance social networks and the benefits of communication in terms of social capital for both those who have migrated and those who have been left behind. Also intriguing is their claim that the notion of assimilation is particularly useless for those who engage in simultaneity in contemporary society, as they continually pivot between incorporation within both their new land and their homeland – again, with clear connections to the globalizing effect of new communication media.
There are many benefits that the development of the internet and the movement toward web 2.0 have had in terms of migrant populations. An obvious and previously discussed benefit is the ease and low cost of communication with and maintenance of migrant social networks. The ability to maintain a strong connection to friends and family who are distributed globally is one of the main goals and effects of this media. This may have effects as small as being able to communicate with friends about daily activities, to as significant as the ability to engage in transnational parenting for families who have been separated due to migration. As also previously mentioned, through the maintenance of social networks, migrants and prospective migrants alike are theorized to experience an increase in social capital through the typically rapid spread of informal information through social networks, thereby reducing barriers to migration in line with chain migration theory. Another very positive benefit of the use of social media and online tools afforded by the web 2.0 movement is the ability to engage in complex transnational identity development. Hornberger (2007) refers to several specific cases of identity development online, giving credit to the ideal of user created content that allows this in order to “create texts around local, national and global issues that are important to them.” (pg 328). The creation of their own texts and content allows the exploration of complex transnational multiple identities surrounding race, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
It would be remiss and naïve to discuss benefits of the use of the internet without acknowledging potential disadvantages to its use as well. As mentioned earlier, the movement in web 2.0 toward personal narrative and user generated content has resulted in individuals presenting a mediated representation of self. This can have important implications when considering the possibility of empowerment and social capital gain through informal information flow through social networks. When information is mediated, there is the possibility of misinformation spread, as individuals try to protect either their image, or their family and social network from seeing particular realities of their situation (Somerville, 2011). Another important finding that may not be particularly intuitive is in the case of refugee use of social media and web 2.0 technologies as seen in Australia. While there were benefits noted in the study, some disadvantages were also seen as a result of the successes of the program in local contexts without proper consideration and awareness of the effects the program may have through non-local contexts (Wilding, 2008). The main disadvantage cited for refugees as seen in the study were connections to distant family members who then made requests for support, regardless of the individual’s ability to provide the support (Wilding, 2008). Also of particular importance is the continuing discussion of the digital divide – unequal access to adequate technology in order to participate meaningfully in internet culture. Though technology has made many strides in recent years in terms of affordability and its global spread with regards to access, there are still areas that are not connected. This is made apparent through the discussion of the Iranian protests of 2009, with which social media, particularly Twitter, is given much credit for the spread of information despite attempts at suppression and censorship. Though this case is typically looked at in a positive way and as evidence of social media’s power to create change, it is proposed that Twitter may have violated U.S. law by providing their service to Iranians as a result of tough sanctions imposed on Iran through the U.S. Departments of Treasury and Commerce that extended to American companies providing services to Iranians (Morozov, 2011). These same sanctions prohibited Iranians from downloading software such as Google’s Chrome browser, the VoIP program Skype, and the instant messenger MSN (Morozov, 2011). This is clear evidence that a digital divide still exists, as there is still Global unequal access for some resulting from international trade sanctions. While there are clear benefits for the use of the internet as a positive, there are most definitely still drawbacks to its use as well.
Through all of the previous discussion, it appears that social capital is increased through engagement with social media as a reinforcement to maintain global social networks, which in turn would likely result in increases of migration through a lowering of barriers to migration all over the world. It seems that most recent studies appear to agree that social media use does indeed increase social capital while affording other positive benefits in terms of complex transnational identity development and the ability to engage in transnationality. All of these results of social media and contemporary internet use point to the benefit and overall influence toward an increase of international migration and the development of a global social network of weak connections in order to increase informal information flow relevant to migration.
As the development of the social web through progression toward web 2.0 ideals has only come about within the past decade, research surrounding the topic is somewhat limited. This is especially apparent when searching for information surrounding contemporary Internet use in a particular area, such as migrant use. Nevertheless, the threading together of research that has surfaced to this point shows a generally optimistic outlook toward the use of new social media and communicative technology development in terms of lowering barriers to migration through increases in social capital and its relation to chain migration, as well as the effect of modern simultaneity experienced by migrants in both their new location and their homeland. Though by no means a definitive conclusion, this paper draws together evidence from a number of academic research areas that developments in the social web are primarily empowering in terms of migration. The results of this research support further stronger and more in depth research into the potential uses of social media and the internet for migrants and implications, as well as advocating for the interdisciplinary collaboration between areas of study to consolidate research.
Works Cited
Chen, G. M. (2012). The Impact of New Media on Intercultural Communication in Global Context. China Media Research, 8(2), 1-10.
Dekker, R., & Engbersen, G. (2012). How social media transform migrant networks and facilitate migration. International Migration Institute and University of Oxford Working Papers Series, 64, 1-21.
Harrington, A. (2005). Modern social theory: An introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hornberger, N. (2007). Biliteracy, transnationalism, multimodality, and identity: trajectories across time and space. Linguistics and Education, 18, 325-334.
Katz, J. E., & Rice, R. E. (2002). Social consequences of Internet use: Access, involvement, and interaction. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Levitt, P., & Glick Schiller, N. (2004). Conceptualizing simultaneity: a transnational social field perspective on society. International Migration Review, 38(145), 595-629.
Massey, D. S., Durand, J., & Malone, N. J. (2002). Beyond smoke and mirrors: Mexican immigration in an era of economic integration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Morozov, E. (2011). The net delusion: The dark side of Internet freedom. New York, NY: PublicAffairs.
Somerville, K. (October 16, 2013). Social Networks and Identities. Sociology 412. Lecture conducted from University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK.
Somerville, K. (2011). “Strategic Migrant Network Building and Information Sharing: Understanding ‘migrant pioneers’ in Canada,” International Migration. Published on-line as Early View article on Mar. 17, 2011.
Tredinnick, L. (2008). Digital information culture: The individual and society in the digital age. Oxford, England: Chandos.
Wilding, R. (2009). Refugee youth, social inclusion, and ICTs: can good intentions go bad? Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, 7(2/3), 159-174. doi:10.1108/14779960910955873