Structuring Migrants' Political Activities on the Internet: A Two-Dimensional Approach

摘要

The Internet has become a central provider of information and means of communication and participation for people around the world. This is especially the case for migrants, as their spheres of interest and their social networks often span large geographical distances. This paper focuses on one specific domain of migrant activity on the Internet—the political arena—which has gained only marginal attention in migration and media studies to date. Thereby I conceptualise the political sphere of migrants as spanning both the country of origin and that of residence and also online and offline forms of political activity. Using data collected from onsite surveys, I analyse first- and second-generation migrants' political activities on- and offline and test how these patterns vary depending on migrants' primary interest in either their country of origin or of residence. My models show that the existence of social networks online, as well as political communication and participation offline, are the best predictors of online activity.View full textDownload full textKeywordsInternet, Migrants, Political Activity, Offline, Online, Country OrientationRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2012.698207