Social media and migration: virtual community 2.0

Research indicates
that migrants' social media usage in Ireland enables a background awareness of
friends and acquaintances that supports bonding capital and transnational
communities in ways not previously reported. Interview data from 65 Polish and
Filipino non-nationals in Ireland provide evidence that their social media
practices enable a shared experience with friends and relations living outside
Ireland that is not simply an elaboration of the social relations enabled by
earlier Internet applications. Social media usage enables a passive monitoring
of others, through the circulation of voice, video, text, and pictures, that
maintains a low level mutual awareness and supports a dispersed community of
affinity. This ambient, or background, awareness of others enhances and
supports dispersed communities by contributing to bonding capital. This may
lead to significant changes in the process of migration by slowing down the process
of integration and participation in host societies while also encouraging
continual movement of migrants from one society to another.