Redes sociales digitales en la migración trasnacional romá de Rumanía. Una polymedia transnacional = Digital Media and Digital Networks in the Romanian Roma Migration: A new transnational polymedia

Abstract

Resumen: En este artículo estudiamos la convergencia de la migración romá rumana posterior a 1989 con el desarrollo de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) a partir de ese mismo período. Para ello hemos partido del trabajo etnográfico previo realizado durante dos campañas entre 2003-2007 y 2013-2016 respectivamente con siete redes romá Korturare procedentes de las regiones rumanas de Transilvania y el Bánato, centrándonos en tres de ellas por su presencia en la ciudad de Granada. El rol de los recursos de polymedia, un entorno emergente de posibilidades comunicativas, facilita y alienta los desplazamientos migratorios al reducir incertidumbres y permitir experiencias de copresencia (digitalizada) en un contexto transnacional. Esta situación favorece dinámicas de reproducción y control cultural, pero a la vez habilita y permite usos diferenciados en polymedia que esbozan transformaciones en las costumbres romá.Abstract: In this paper we explore the convergence of two contemporary parallel processes: the post-1990 transnational migration of Roma groups from some Eastern European countries, particularly Romania to the West, and the growing use by these populations of the expanding social media derived from the revolutionary development of new ICT (information and communication technologies). We have followed some groups from Transylvania and Banat to their western diaspora in a long-term ethnographic work that started in 2003 and was retaken in a recent ethnographic project (2013-2017). We have studied primarily groups living in Andalusia, although their family networks are extended today over more than 30 localities in a dozen of European and North American countries. These networks of networks form a social space or commuinity or reference that is largely maintained through digital communication. The different social media and communication options (from Facebook to cheap phone calls) generate a new kind of virtual environment or polymedia (Madianou and Miller 2011, 2012). In this paper we explore the effects of this new social space of communication in three major aspects of Roma social life: 1)Its effects in facilitating, supporting and inducing mobility and migration; 2) In cultural reproduction and transformation through the maintenance of specific systems of family, marriage, gender and conflict resolution, including the online transmission of public trials and courts (kris), funerary rituals and elaborated marriage ceremonies, including betrothal (mangaimo) and weddings (abev); and 3)In new processes of social distinction and differentiation following fracture lines of class, gender and generation.

The Internet as a social institution: Rethinking concepts for family scholarship

“…Other institutions that influence the institution of family also engage in the same interactions. Transnational migration networks (Ogáyar‐Marín et al, 2018; Marlowe & Bruns, 2021), economic sectors (Liu, 2020), religious communities (Ali, 2011; Pearson, 2018; Rahbari, 2021), and educational groups (Brown & Grinter, 2014; Lee et al, 2021) cultivate ties, define boundaries and communities, and create discourses. Social media, video and audio conference platforms, texts, online game communities, and the blogosphere serve as interaction sites.…”

The network expression of a Roma diaspora

“…Our knowledge about this community builds upon several research projects by a group of scholars over the last decade (see, e.g., Beluschi-Fabeni 2018, Gamella 2018, Gamella et al 2017, Matras & Leggio 2017, Ogáyar-Marín et al 2018. As in most our past work, the current research has been from the start a project of collaborative ethnography (Lassiter 2005).…”

“…Thanks to our previous ethnographic work (Beluschi-Fabeni 2013, Gamella 2018, Gamella 2007, Gamella et al 2017, Ogáyar-Marín et al 2018, we were able to classify most of the participants as belonging to one of 31 rače. For ethical reasons, we avoid using the real names of the rača groups and label them as "A", "B", "C", and so on throughout the manuscript.…”

“…More specifically, we propose and implement a novel methodology based on snowball sampling through Facebook and social network analysis to obtain fundamental insights about a Roma group originating in Romania that, after several waves of their recent massive migration, is currently located in a large number of countries. Building upon previous knowledge of the target population (Beluschi-Fabeni 2013, Gamella 2018, Gamella et al 2017, Ogáyar-Marín et al 2018, we expect the cultural patterns of the group documented in past research and ethnographic fieldwork to be reflected in the elicited network structure, and test our hypotheses using quantitative statistical analyses. Our main goal is to test whether the elicited quantitative network information can be used to predict individuals' (qualitative) cultural traits (see Molina et al 2022 for a recent approximation to this topic).…”

Technologies in Migration Processes: Mediation in Communication and Social Capital

“…Today, digital technology gives members of a diaspora the possibility of living a double presence, physical and virtual, experiencing a change in their profile due to changes in the social environment related to mobility and the requirement of interconnection and communication (Diminescu, 2008;Králik et al, 2022;Ogáyar-Marín et al 2018). As a result, new terms have emerged to refer to these subjects, such as connected migrant (Diminescu, 2008), online migrant (Nedelcu, 2009), and co-presence (Baldassar et al, 2016), defined as a migrant in movement who develops relationships with their peer group or social network, representing a definitive shift away from the old image of the uprooted immigrant.…”