The Identity Construction of Migrants on Facebook

Abstract

Social network sites, such as Facebook, allow access to a series of resources or discursive forms that constitute a multimodal and dialogical system that transcends barriers of time and space, favouring transnational communication, something particularly important to migrants. In addition, the comments and dialogues that take place in such socialisation spaces allow us to develop a greater knowledge of the identity and positioning of the user with respect to others. With this work we analyse, from a qualitative point of view, 150 posts each containing at least five comments, published between 2017 and 2019, in each of five Facebook groups of Latin American migrants living in Italy: Uruguayans, Argentinians, Colombians, Peruvians and Venezuelans. We determine their role in the migratory process and how the digital environment affects the relationships between migrants. In addition, we investigate how the identities of migrants are negotiated and (re)defined in discursive practice. Results shows that social network sites are “transnational social spaces”, in which a community is based on bonds of solidarity that derive from a shared conception of collective identity, and they forge deterritorialised “community of feeling”.

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English and Co-Construction of Solidarity between Language Agents and Tourists in Tourism Information Service

“…Even when it is uttered in the Indonesian variety "sedap" (Indonesian: delicious), it is only used as expression of exclamation after having a delicious meal and not for asking the taste of prospective foods; in the latter context, the word is "enak" (Indonesian: delicious). In many cases, the use of the Malay language led to confusion for both parties, and switching to English was an effective strategy; however, the use of Malay, accentuating identities associated with the language (Mapelli 2019;Moustaoui Srhir et al 2019), might minimize social differentiation and increase solidarity (Bhatt and Bolonyai 2022) between the staff and clients as members of the same speech community, although they opt for English to avoid possible misunderstandings.…”

Digital mourning on Facebook: the case of Filipino migrant worker live-in caregivers in Israel

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