... youth make (online) become resources that inform their identity positions? ... 49% of Dutch-Moroccan teens mention, in their top 5 websites, a website with ...
Lived in spaces and identity practices of migrant youth Achieving a sense of belonging in Hybrid Social Networks Researchers: Mariette de Haan, Kevin Leander, Fleur Prinsen & Asli Unlusoy (Funded by ‘High Potential Grant and University of Utrecht, Vanderbilt University) Research Question: How do the social connections Dutch-Moroccan youth make (online) become resources that inform their identity positions? Abstract: Through rapidly expanding social media practices, people engage in multiple and shifting communities consisting of hybrid networks of people and artifacts. This study addresses how new forms of digital connection 1) create new possibilities for affiliation and identification for Dutch-Moroccan youth; 2) impact upon the ways in which youth mobilize resources across contexts. SNA permits us to demonstrate the relational structure of these networks in terms of their composition, their density and expansion over (geographical) space. Descriptions of identity related online social activities are extracted from large survey data (n=344). Furthermore, a select number of social network interviews (n=24/16) are analyzed through the combination of Social Network Analysis and a Discourse Analytic approach.
Theoretical Frameworks: Socio-cultural and Activity Theories (Barab, Barnett, Yamagata-Lynch, Squire, & Keating, 2002; Cole & Engeström, 1993; Engeström & Karkkainen, 1995; Prior, 1998), Social Network Analysis Perspective (Scott, 2000; Wasserman & Faust, 1994).
SURVEY RESULTS (n=344): Table 1: Top 10 favorite websites DM teens 49% of Dutch-Moroccan teens mention, in their top 5 websites, a website with specifically ethnic content (e.g. Marokko.nl). Online they talk about: what happens in their neighborhood, friendships, and homework but also about religion and knowledge & history.
SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS RESULTS (n=24): Figure 1: Network, with distances visualized
Figure 2: Comparison online with whole network 90%
80%
70%
60%
Whole network Online network
50%
40%
30% Same age
Family
Same background
Local contacts
A majority (58%) of the network-relations are maintained both offline and online. The online network is more heterogeneous than the network as a whole. The average density of both the whole and the online network is 0.62 (Density might influence the level of conformity and consistency in behavior) New connections are made online (4%), 9% of network connections are International.
CONTENT ANALYSIS RESULTS (n=16): Figure 3: Social Contexts as mentioned in the Interview
Figure 4: Online learning domains
Frequency of Social Contexts Mentioned (n=16)
Figure 5: Media for Social Learning
Online Learning domains
Mentions of media for Social learning
16
7
14
6
12
5
10
4
10
8
3
8
6
2
6
4
1
2
0
0
16 14 12
4 2 0
Conclusion: Online resourceful connections that inform identity positions? Dutch-Moroccan youth mobilize a great variety of social resources online to both perform their hybrid identities and to build new (social) knowledge. They engage in multidiscursive social contexts, sometimes ‘sidestepping’ the social control employed by family members or by publics that put restrictions on certain identity expressions. Also, geographical and temporal constraints are surpassed online, for instance for staying in touch with family abroad or for remaining in the know with more local networks when face to face meeting is not possible. Websites like Marokko.nl provide Dutch-Moroccan youth with a place to find and develop their specific identity positions as Dutch-Moroccans, while they express limits in their feelings of belonging to either the Dutch nationality or the Moroccan nationality. Even though there are restrictions in online social contexts on ways in which MB teens like to connect to social resources and face to face contact is still preferred in many occasions, many important connections are made and maintained online.
