As an overall approach, my study is broadly informed by social constructivism because it sees social connections (or networks) as being at the forefront of our sense of individual identity. As discussed above, one’s sense of self is viewed as a product of social interaction (see for example Littlejohn and Foss, 2005; Krippendorff, 1993) with individuals in a constant process of constructing and reconstructing their
identities. Social constructivism developed from the seminal work of Berger and Luckmann (1991) which recognises the influence of the social environment, culture and religion on how people construct their realities about their world. The two scholars see people as creating meanings for their activities together, that is, people “socially” construct their reality (Williamson, 2000, p. 20). Individuals are therefore perceived as being able to shape one another’s attitudes, expectations, practices,
In a similar way, online communities can also exert influence on individuals. As shown in the studies above, the growth of social media has, in recent years, created new spaces for community formation and the negotiation of identity. Within the context of the rapidly changing field of technology and migration, the advent of SNSs, like Facebook, has contributed to the various mediated spaces available to migrants throughout the process of migration. The Facebook groups analysed in this study are therefore conceptualised as spaces in which online communities of Italian migrants are constructed. Drawing on the studies by Ryan et al. (2008) and Dekker and Engbersen (2013a), online migrant networks (and communities such as the Facebook groups I selected for this study) – through the co-construction of a shared “migrant identity” – are taken to be vital sources of social capital for migrants,
enabling them to access social support and insider information about the host country, thus facilitating the process of migration.
As discussed in the Introduction, the premise of this research is that the phenomenon of new Italian migrants to Australia is under-researched. In addition, the influence of online communication on the expectations and experiences of new migrants needs further examination, particularly because few studies within the field of technology and migration have taken into account the pre-migration period (section 3.1.2). On the contrary, in this thesis, migration is conceptualised as a process that begins before the arrival in the host country.
The three phases of the migration cycle identified by Hiller and Franz (2004) (see section 3.1.2) – pre-migrant, post-migrant and settled-migrant – revealed three
completely different categories of computer usage. My thesis draws on these stages and phases as they help to illuminate the changes in the way that migrants use technology throughout the migration process.
Unlike Hiller and Franz (2004), however, in addition to a pre-migrant’s use of the computer to gain information, make contacts and get advice about potentially migrating, in my analysis of Facebook groups I also consider how migrants are influenced by the way in which the host country is imagined collectively in the minds of the community members (section 3.1.2). For the purposes of the current study, then, the concept of imagination is a key construct that will be used to address the research questions posed. The concept of imagination extends Hiller and Franz’s (2004) definition of the pre-migration period as it refers to the way in which online communities may also influence initial expectations by providing a kind of armchair travel/migration (Buzzi & Megele, 2011, p. 39). In other words, online communities are understood as providing a hyper-reality (Buzzi & Megele, 2011, p. 39) in which potential-migrants can obtain a window into their potential lives in a host country through the photographs, stories and information shared on social media by those who are already there.
The imagination can be used as a meaning-making device and is the foundation of many travels, whether in the context of tourism (Salazar, 2011) or migration (Appadurai, 1996). While motivations to migrate are usually varied, they are inextricably linked to the ability of individuals and their social networks to imagine other places and lives (Salazar, 2011).
In particular, Appadurai (1996) offers a useful framework for examining the role of social media and imagination during the migration process. Appadurai conceptualises modernity as the practice of imagining where you would like to be. He proposes that based on technological advancements of the twenty-first century, the imagination has become part of everyday life for ordinary people, instead of being confined to the privileged and powerful. He writes, “Because of the sheer multiplicity of the forms in which they appear (cinema, television, computers, and telephones) and because of the rapid way in which they move through daily life routines, electronic media provide resources for self-imagining as an everyday social project” (p. 4).
In this sense, the average person can frequently imagine him/herself in different situations and different places due to those technologies which disseminate images of other lifestyles and other places. He highlights that these lifestyles and places are not fantasised, but are genuinely imagined because in our technology-dominated world, everything appears as possibility and nothing is out of reach: “More people than ever before seem to imagine routinely the possibility that they… will live and work in [or migrate to] places other than where they were born…” (Appadurai, 1996, p. 6).
Although Appadurai’s theory is based on mass media, such as television, film and radio, it can also apply to online communication technologies like social media. As Burrell and Anderson (2008) point out, “Internet users have an unprecedented level of control over what images, people and information they are exposed to that television watchers never have.” (p. 216). Indeed, differently to television, film and radio, social media platforms, such as Facebook, promote UGC which has been found to be
a more influential and trustworthy source of information because of the perceived impartiality of the person posting (see review by Litvin et al., 2008). In my study, Italian migrants’ UGC on Facebook groups provided my participants with, in their words, relevant, personalised feedback, and reliable information about life in Australia that they could not get from official government websites.
Two other concepts that are significant in this study are community and identity. As mentioned at the beginning of this section, I take the position that the concepts of community and identity are socially constructed phenomena within an interactive, dynamic process of negotiation (Berger & Luckmann, 1991; Krippendorff, 1993; Littlejohn & Foss, 2005). However, communities and identities are of course not constructed in isolation. Thus, as discussed above, this study defines community by drawing on Baym’s (2015) and Wellman’s (1999) previously outlined identifiers of community, that is, belonging to a community involves networks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, sense of belonging, and social identity. Indeed, as will become clear in the following chapters, the majority of Italian
migrants using Facebook groups show feelings of belonging to the groups and being part of a close-knit Italian community.
Drawing on Komito’s (2011) research of Polish and Filipino non-nationals in Ireland, the use of social media is able to provide migrants with a common experience of migration that supports a shared commitment and common identity, all of which can be considered characteristics of a real community. Additionally, as Baym (2015) explains, online and offline communities share five main commonalities: a shared
sense of space, shared practices, shared resources and support, shared identities, and interpersonal support. These characteristics also help to form my conceptualisation of Facebook groups for Italians as online communities, that is, they have a shared sense of space (Facebook groups for Italians in Australia) and shared cultural identity (being an Italian migrant). The feelings that derive from being part of this shared sense of place are defined as a sense of virtual community (see Koh and Kim, 2003 in section 3.3.1) which is useful for examining how groups of individuals can influence each other online.
The notions of social support and social capital are two other key concepts for understanding how these Facebook groups function as online communities which influence their members. Both bridging social capital and bonding social capital are concepts that are often examined in reference to the notion that technology facilitates migration (see section 3.2.2). During the pre-migration period, Putman’s (2000) notion of bridging social capital is particularly useful for understanding why migrants who interact online are more likely to gain information not previously held by the individual or by the individual’s strong ties (Granovetter, 1978). Similarly, bonding social capital is also influential as it helps maintain ties with family and friends, particularly those back home. In this study, I will draw in particular on the notion of bridging social capital in order to elucidate why pre-migrants (and post-migrants) use their online community as a resource for finding insider information and knowledge from other members about the host country.
Since online communities are often viewed as spaces for exchanging information and social support, and for regaining social capital, as shown by the majority of studies presented above, they have often been analysed with the assumption that there is little conflict within them (section 3.3.3). Yet, by conceiving online communities as real communities, I take a more nuanced view of online communities and thus
acknowledge that although these communities encourage information sharing and social support, certain negative or anti-social behaviours such as hostility and aggression may also develop in online communities, just as they do in face-to-face communities.
The concept of identity is also crucial when analysing online migrant communities such as those created within Facebook groups for Italians in Australia. Since this thesis is concerned with the influence of online communities on the expectations and experiences of a group of Italian migrants, it is useful to focus particularly on the aspect of cultural identity (Hall, 1997). Hall argues that our identities are formed and transformed within and in relation to representation. In other words, one knows what it is to be “Italian” because of the way italianità has come to be represented, as a set of meanings, by Italian national culture. Hall writes, “In part we give things meaning by how we represent them...meaning is what gives us a sense of our own identity, of who we are and with whom we “belong”” (Hall, 1997, p. 3).
Furthermore, from this perspective, people are not merely passive users of
representation, they are also simultaneously their producers. As thoughts, ideas and feelings are represented in language and culture (Hall, 1997), so do meanings and
identities rely on representation, both linguistic and cultural; thus identities are always negotiated in a transnational context (Georgiou, 2006, p. 28). Taking this view accepts the poststructuralist perspective that identities are not unified but fragmented and fractured; they are in a constant process of change and transformation, that is, they are “…constructed across different, often intersecting and antagonistic, discourses,
practices and positions” (Hall, 1996, p. 4). In terms of migrants who interact within online communities, their sense of identity is situated on a continuum of potential- migrant, pre-migrant and post-migrant. Their migrant identity, for example, is in the process of becoming rather than being. Hall (1996) writes, “identities are about… not ‘who we are’ or ‘where we came from’, so much as what we might become, how we might have been represented and how that bears on how we might represent
ourselves” (p. 4).
In the case of migrants, SNSs, like Facebook, more than any other medium, also help to “develop, maintain, and re-create” identities (Alonso and Oiarzabal, 2010, p. ix). The influences of both home and host country, and strong and weak ties, can also interconnect to form a transnational identity which is in a constant state of production and reproduction. As explained above, contemporary Italian migrants in Australia are viewed in this inquiry as transnational migrants, operating within a transnational lifestyle (Schrooten, 2012). The homeland (Italy) acts as an emotional and relational glue which gives rise to new ties (often sustained through technology) with other migrants (Italians) living in the same host country, sharing the same culture (Hiller and Franz, 2004). Therefore, in exploring the construction of identities in the analysis of my data (Chapters Five and Six), priority is given to the construction of cultural
and transnational identities, that is, how new Italian migrants reconstruct, reaffirm and maintain their identity as Italians in Australia by using Facebook groups.
3.5 Concluding remarks
This chapter has reviewed the relevant literature on migration, social media and online communities, and provided a theoretical framework for the current study. The literature reviewed points to the potential of online communities within SNSs to facilitate migration. It has been acknowledged that the recreation of social capital in the host country via social media improves the well-being of migrants and thus their ability to cope with any difficulties during the migration process. A migrant’s sense of trust is also largely informed by the degree to which his/her online network aligns with his/her personal values, such as family and local community.
It is expected, then, that being part of an online community, such as those in Facebook groups created for Italians in Australia, will increase social connectedness, trust, sense of community, and in turn, influence both the pre- migration expectations and post- migration experiences of Italian migrants in Australia. However, it is also possible that being part of an online community can engender ethnic enclaves of mutually dependent weak ties. Heavy reliance on co-nationals within online settings is bound to have some consequences on how expectations are shaped pre-migration and the types of culturally specific experiences that will occur in the host country post-migration.
choosing them. The chapter will then detail the sample and recruitment process for finding participants as well as the tools that were used to analyse the data.
CHAPTER FOUR
METHODOLOGY
The previous chapter reviewed the literature on migration and online communication with a focus on how social media, and in particular SNSs like Facebook, can facilitate the process of migration through the creation of online social support, social
connectedness, virtual sense of community and social capital. This chapter presents the research design that has been used in this study. More specifically, I provide an explanation of the foundations for the study and the rationale for applying a
qualitative methodology. The method is then outlined, including the context of the study, the position of the researcher and the case study. The data sources are
presented, as well as some of the ethical considerations surrounding the use of social media as a data source in online research. The sample to be used for the in-depth interviews is also explained. The final section details the tools used for data analysis.