‘Everybody needs friends’: Emotions, social networks and digital media in the friendships of international students

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 674-691
Author(s):  
Jolynna Sinanan ◽  
Catherine Gomes
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Transnational Families ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
Kin Relations ◽  
Perspective Drawing ◽  
Emotional Aspects ◽  
Networks Of Support

The importance of kin relations and neighbourhoods has received considerable attention in research on transnational migration. Further, research in transnational families and digital media highlights the strategies for maintaining family relationships By contrast, research on friendship is currently limited and, more so, the centrality of the emotional aspects of friendships as intimacy as well as networks of support has received less attention, particularly from a culturally comparative perspective. Drawing on qualitative research in Melbourne ( n = 59) and Singapore ( n = 61), this article examines the ways in which international students invest in developing friendships with other international students based on shared circumstances in the cities in which they are living and studying. The article contributes to fields of literature in transnational migration and cross-cultural perspectives towards friendship and argues that the kinds of friendship forged by the experiences of international students are significant for capturing an aspect of the diversity of migrant relationships.

Tradycyjna rola w nietradycyjnej rodzinie. Transnarodowa migracja polskich żon i matek – studium przypadku

2013 ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
Magdalena Muszel
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Transnational Families ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Female Migrants ◽  
The Face ◽  
Sense Of Identity

Family gender roles and family relationships influence the lives of Polish transnational families to a great extent. Traditionally adopted gender roles connected with being a mother and wife largely shape the experience and attitudes of Polish female migrants in Ireland: starting with the decision about the migration, through family relations during the separation period, and ending up at the point of reunion. Attempts to continue to perform the traditional role of a mother and wife in the face of the transnational migration is an effort to preserve Polish women’s sense of identity as well as provisional power within their families.

scholarly journals Introduction: The emotional turn in journalism

Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492098570
Author(s):  
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen ◽  
Mervi Pantti
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Journalism Studies ◽  
Diverse Field ◽  
Emotional Aspects ◽  
Developing Area ◽  
New Research

In journalism studies, an interest in emotions has gathered momentum during the last decade, leading to an increasingly diverse investigation of the affective and emotional aspects of production, text and audience engagement with journalism which we describe as an “emotional turn.” The attention to emotion in journalism studies is a relatively recent development, sustained by the concurrent rise of digital information technologies that have accentuated the emotional and affective everyday use of media, as well as the increasing mobilization, exploitation and capitalization of emotions in digital media. This special issue both builds upon research on emotion in journalism studies and aims to extend it by examining new theoretical and methodological tools, and areas of empirical analysis, to engage with emotion or affect across the contexts of journalistic production, content and consumption. In proclaiming ‘an emotional turn’ in journalism studies, the intention of this special issue is not to suggest a paradigm shift or a major change in the prevailing research agenda in the field. Rather, against the backdrop of the increasingly diverse field of journalism studies, it is to point out that the relationship between journalism and emotion represents a rapidly developing area of inquiry, which opens up for new research agendas.

Social support, well-being and involvement of fathers in transnational families in the Philippines

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-510
Author(s):  
Melissa Garabiles
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Spousal Support ◽  
Paternal Involvement ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Transnational Families ◽  
Left Behind

This study investigated left-behind Filipino fathers and their involvement as child caregivers. It hypothesized that social support and well-being predict paternal involvement, with well-being as the mediator. Results showed that familial and peer support predicted involvement, with well-being as mediator. Spousal support did not predict involvement or well-being. Findings highlight the importance of familial and peer support to left-behind fathers. Interactions between significant predictors of involvement present novel pathways to childcare. The non-significant role of spousal support is discussed in the context of transnational migration. Several interventions involving families and peers are suggested.

Disconnective intimacies through social media: practices of transnational family among overseas Chinese students in Australia

2019 ◽  
Vol 173 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyu Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
International Students ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Transnational Families ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Transnational Family ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Practices ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Insight Into

This article investigates Chinese international students’ everyday transnational family practices through the use of social media. Specifically, the article highlights the relevance of two interlinked forms of disconnection in these students’ daily negotiations of ambivalent cross-border family relations in an age of always-on connectivity. The first form involves their disconnection from the general public via their creation of intimate spaces on social media that are exclusive to their family members. The second form involves the students detaching themselves from such intimate spaces, often temporarily, to escape and resist familial control and surveillance. I conclude the article by developing the notion of ‘disconnective intimacy’ to conceptualise contemporary Chinese transnational families. This article contributes to the literature on the transnational family by providing an insight into the micro-politics of mediated co-presence through the trope of ‘disconnective practice’.

Investigating eResearch

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Markauskaite ◽  
Mary Anne Kennan ◽  
Jim Richardson ◽  
Anindito Aditomo ◽  
Leonie Hellmers
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
User Perspective ◽  
Knowledge Resources ◽  
Perspective Drawing ◽  
The Future ◽  
Collaboration Tools ◽  
Research Students ◽  
Australian Universities

Why and how do researchers collaborate, share knowledge resources, data, and expertise? What kinds of infrastructures and services do they use, and what do they need for the future enhancement of collaborative research practices? The chapter focuses on existing and potential eResearch from a “user” perspective. Drawing on a study of ICT-enhanced research practices and needs conducted at seven Australian universities, it discusses how researchers engage with distributed research and use ICT for collaboration. Findings show significant current engagement of the majority of researchers in collaborative research, their acknowledgement of the potential of eResearch, and researchers’ general willingness to engage in collaborative eResearch. While there are some essential differences in the collaboration practices of research students and academics and between practices and challenges in different disciplinary domains, researchers who are more involved in collaborative research also adopt eResearch more extensively, more often use ICT-enhanced collaboration tools, share more of their data, and more often disseminate their findings via digital media.

Digital labour in transnational mobility: Chinese international students’ online boundary work in daigou

2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482093409
Author(s):  
Xinyu Zhao
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Chinese International Students ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Transnational Mobility ◽  
Manufactured Products ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Daigou, literally translated as buying on behalf of, is a Mandarin term that refers to a form of personalised transnational trading activity, which is generally characterised by practices of purchasing locally manufactured products overseas and reselling them to consumers in China via international courier services. This article examines Chinese international students’ digital labour invested in daigou and their use of social media, particularly WeChat, in running their personal enterprises. Through the analytical lens of ‘boundary’, the article reveals how daigou activities involve sustained crossing and reconstructing boundaries of privacy through selective self-disclosure of personal information. This study contributes to the empirical literature on international students’ everyday use of digital media by highlighting their work practices in the digital age. Conceptually, the case study of daigou suggests overlapping spaces between various forms of digital labour and the relevance of ‘unproductive’ labour which constitutes a necessary dimension of online work.

scholarly journals Digital media and the affective economies of transnational families

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 639-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raelene Wilding ◽  
Loretta Baldassar ◽  
Shashini Gamage ◽  
Shane Worrell ◽  
Samiro Mohamud
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Specific Role ◽  
Transnational Families ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Media Practices

Digital media are widely recognised as essential to the maintenance of transnational families. To date, most accounts have focused on the role of digital media practices as producing and sustaining transnational relationships, through, for example, the practices of ‘digital kinning’. In this article, we extend that body of work by drawing attention to the specific role of the emotions that are circulated through digital media interactions and practices. We use data from ethnographic interviews with older migrant adults to consider how people who fled civil wars and resettled in Australia bridge the distances between ‘here’ and ‘there’. Our analysis draws attention to the circulation of affect, arguing that it is the capacity of digital media to circulate emotions and support affective economies that gives substance to and defines the surfaces and boundaries of transnational families, and constitutes the mutuality of being that underpins familyhood at a distance.

The financialisation of transnational family care: a study of UK-based senders of remittances to Ghana and Nigeria

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Nicola Yeates ◽  
Freda Owusu-Sekyere
Keyword(s):  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Family Care ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Transnational Families ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
Family Networks ◽  
Transnational Family ◽  
The Social

AbstractTransnational families occupy centre-stage in literatures on transformations in the social organisation and relations of care and welfare because they express how social bonds are sustained despite geographical separation. This paper examines some key themes arising from a research study into remittance-sending practices of UK-based Ghanaians and Nigerians in the light of research literatures on transnational family care and development finance. The data comprises qualitative interviews with 20 UK-based Ghanaian and Nigerian people who regularly send remittances to their families ‘back home’. This paper discusses a social issue that arises from the transnationalisation of family structures and relations, when migrant family members are positioned within family networks as ‘absent providers’, and familial relations eventually become financialised. The findings show the complexities of transnational living, the hardships endured by remittance-senders and the particular strains of remittance-mediated family relationships. The financialisation of family relations affects the social subjectivity and positioning of remittance-senders within the family. Strain and privation are integral to participants’ experiences of transnational family life, while themes of deception, betrayal, and expatriation also feature. The suppression of emotion is a feature of the significant labour inputs participants make in sustaining relationships within transnational families. The paper considers UK social policy implications of the findings.

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