Social Media as Means of Mitigation of Marginalization for Vietnamese Migrant Workers in Thailand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Le Duc
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Melly Ridaryanthi

The migration of Indonesian Migrant Workers (TKI) to Malaysia resulted the adaptation experience with the host culture during their repeated social interaction with locals. Communication has bridged the interaction which lead to the process of adjusting cultures among the individuals. Communication has not only occurred in the interaction with people who are staying in the host country, but also with those in their home country. Aside of telephone or text messaging, social media plays a role in the process of adaptation among the immigrants. This study has traced the migration and adaptation experience of 33 TKIs. With the objective of tracing the communication experience in their adaptation process by focusing on the role of social media in their social communication process. Focus group discussions were conducted for data gathering. The findings show that aside of direct interpersonal communication with the locals and fellow immigrants, TKIs keep their communication with the family in Indonesia on daily basis through phone call and social media interaction. Interaction with the host has exposed and helped them to adapt with the local culture. However, the interaction with fellow immigrants and text messaging through social media account with family and friends in home country has kept them updated with what is happening in their home country. The use of vernacular language during the interaction with the fellow immigrants as well as people in the home country kept them linger with their original culture. Thus, social media has kept them in their own enclave culture virtually.


The purpose of this study was to sociologically analyze the use of social media in female migrant workers in the development of social entrepreneurship. The study used a qualitative approach with a mixed method. Data was taken using in-depth interviews, observations, FGDs, and full survey enumerators. This study shows that the more frequent the intensity of migrating abroad, the higher the income (economic remittances) and social remittances (knowledge and experience) will be. Van Dijk (2006) stated that digital social media is able to penetrate the social structures that exist in society. The results of this study reveal the same phenomenon as Van Dijk's theory, female migrant workers who were previously considered a marginal group was able to create social networks through social media for the development of social entrepreneurship. The results of this study revealed a different phenomenon from the theory from Massey (1990) which stated that international migration will take place continuously (cumulative causation). This was because there have been developments of social entrepreneurship supported by social media, providing alternative jobs in the workers' hometowns.


2021 ◽  
pp. 011719682110454
Author(s):  
Jovito Jose P. Katigbak ◽  
Ma. Divina Gracia Z. Roldan

This exploratory study focuses on the Philippine government’s response to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in distress, especially in the Middle East using social media platforms. It examines the level of social media adoption by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in protecting Filipino nationals abroad. The popularity of social networking sites among Filipinos, including DFA officials and staff, played a vital role in influencing the institution’s move toward social media adoption. Key informant interviews were conducted with 10 officials, case officers, and staff at the DFA home office and Foreign Service Posts in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from June to July 2019. While Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be effective tools for speedy communication between the DFA and OFWs, the DFA faces several challenges such as budgetary constraints, lack of human resources with ICT skills, and verifying reports, among others. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the indispensable role of social media platforms in communicating with OFWs and in extending assistance to those in distress. Hence, the DFA may consider the formulation of an agency-wide social media strategy and collaboration with other migration authorities on social media-anchored projects.


2020 ◽  
pp. 016344372095755
Author(s):  
Deby Babis

The practice of mourning on social media, known as digital mourning, has become a worldwide phenomenon. While scholarly attention focuses on manifestations of online grief, there is a dearth of research regarding this process among immigrants. Based on a digital ethnography on Facebook on the Filipino community in Israel, this study inquires how migrant workers construct their mourning on digital networks. Focusing on grief upon death in the host country, two different practices of digital mourning were found. When Filipino live-in caregivers announce the loss of their elderly employers, their personal pain is shared on their own Facebook wall, receiving personal condolence comments. However, when a fellow Filipino migrant worker passes away, the pain is shared in closed community groups on Facebook, which are followed by thousands of condolence comments. This practice creates a communal feeling that can be termed Communal Digital Grief, and differs from the Personal Digital Grief experienced by migrants as a result of the loss of their employer. This study sheds light on two different practices of digital mourning. One appears on the personal Facebook walls of the bereaved and has therapeutic impact, while the other appears on closed Facebook groups and contributes to community building.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Irfan Wahyudi ◽  
Panizza Allmark

This article focuses on contemporary smartphone culture and activism performed by female Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. There are around 330.000 migrant workers in Hong Kong, and wherein 150.000 originated from Indonesia. Most of the Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong work in the domestic sectors: housemaid, babysitter, and career. They are obliged to live with their employer and start working from five mornings until late at night for six days a week. The smartphone is their primary medium in keeping a connection with friends and families back home and reduces social isolation. Interestingly, Indonesian migrant workers also use smartphones for activism to support migrant workers’ rights issues. Despite the isolation issues and the social limitations experienced by the Indonesian migrant workers’, this article aims to explore the following questions: how is smartphone culture developed in Indonesian migrant workers’ communication activities in Hong Kong? How is the smartphone, in particular, used as the medium for activism? Using the netnography method, this research explores the smartphone culture and activism performed by Indonesian migrant workers’ in their online routine. Smartphone usage has become an interesting phenomenon where this device has changed the cultural habits and further forms a new cultural pattern. Social media platforms and chat applications on smartphones have facilitated Indonesian migrant workers’ more comprehensive access to information. It is found that social media access is essential for Indonesian migrant workers to ease loneliness and further used as their medium of existence in the virtual world. Furthermore, they also create virtual identities through social media, share experiences and views through online platforms, and organize protests or other forms of activism. Sulistyaningsih’s case is a clear example of how communication access was crucial for Indonesian migrant workers at a time of danger. The diverse forms of communication technology have allowed them to create compelling messages. This activity provides evidence that Indonesian migrant workers still can be creative despite their long working hours.


Author(s):  
Reza Praditya Yudha

Indonesian migrant workers use social media for various needs. Workers’ engagement on social media is usually related to their hometown and socio-culture abroad. This study draws on Couldry and Hepp’s idea of ​​mediatisation to examine the interrelation of communication practices and media use to socio-cultural dynamics. The author argues that media engagement is related to socio-cultural context, especially workers’ socio-cultural group. Applying virtual ethnography, the author analysed media types, actor constellations, communication themes, and practices. The findings show that workers select relationships, posts, and types of social media, and their social media engagement is strongly related to their hometown socio-culture. Workers use Facebook to present hardworking, collectively, and homely self-images, WhatsApp to connect to intimate relationships or close family, while young workers choose, and Instagram to construct a modern, successful, and expressive self-image. Additionally, workers join local group accounts to update news and maintain a sense of belonging to the hometown.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Julaekhah Julaekhah

Abstrak Indonesia merupakan negara berkembang yang mengirimkan banyak tenaga kerjanya ke negara maju. Indramayu adalah salah satu daerah pengirim tenaga kerja terbanyak dan didominasi oleh wanita atau yang disebut dengan buruh migran perempuan. Pascamoratorium, banyak buruh migran asal Indramayu yang dikirim untuk bekerja di negara-negara Asia Timur, seperti Taiwan, Hongkong, Jepang, dan Korea. Terdapat fenomena menarik yang muncul pada masyarakat Indramayu, yakni buruh migran perempuan yang menggunakan cadar pascakepulanganya bekerja di negara-negara tersebut. Buruh migran perempuan tersebut mendapatkan nilai-nilai Islam setelah bekerja di negara Asia Timur, yang penganut agama Islam di sana sebagai minoritas. Melihat fenomena tersebut penulis tertarik untuk meneliti lebih mendalam mengenai buruh migran perempuan bercadar. Penelitian ini merupakan sebuah penelitian yang menggunakan analisis sosiologis untuk mengungkapkan kehidupan buruh migran perempuan bercadar dengan menggambarkan suatu konstruksi sosial buruh migran perempuan bercadar asal Indramayu. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian lapangan dengan menggunakan analisis data kualitatif. Metode pengumpulan data yang digunakan yakni melalui observasi dan wawancara. Dengan dikaji lebih mendalam melalui teori konstruksi sosial Petter. L. Berger yang terdiri dari proses eksternalisasi, objektifikasi, dan internalisasi. Dari penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa proses konstruksi sosial buruh migran perempuan bercadar di Indramayu melalui tiga proses yakni pertama, proses eksternalisasi melalui media sosial, kajian, serta teman sejawat. Kedua, proses objektifikasi ditandai dengan adanya anggapan bahwa cadar sebagai bentuk kesalihan seorang muslimah, munculnya penyesalan di masa lalu sebelum mengenakan cadar, serta signifikasi. Dan yang ketiga, proses internalisasi yakni ditunjukkan dengan penggunaan cadar sebagai pakaian sehari-hari, semangat berdakwah baik di media sosial maupun di organisasi untuk mengajak orang lain mengenakan cadar. Abstract Indonesia is a developing country that sends a lot of its workers to developed countries. Indramayu is one of the most labor-sending areas and is dominated by women or what are known as female migrant workers. After the moratorium, many migrant workers from Indramayu were sent to work in East Asian countries, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. There is an interesting phenomenon that arises in Indramayu society, namely female migrant workers who wear a veil after returning to work in these countries. These female migrant workers get Islamic values ​​after working in an East Asian country, where Muslims are a minority. Seeing this phenomenon, the authors are interested in investigating more deeply the veiled female migrant workers. This research is a study that uses sociological analysis to reveal the life of veiled female migrant workers by describing a social construction of veiled female migrant workers from Indramayu. This research is a field research using qualitative data analysis. The data collection method that the writer uses is through observation and interviews. With a deeper examination through Petter's social construction theory. L. Berger, which consists of the process of externalization, objectification and internalization. From this research, it was found that the social construction process of veiled female migrant workers in Indramayu went through three processes: first, the process of externalization through social media, studies, and peers. Second, the process of objectification is marked by the assumption that the veil is a form of distraction for a Muslim woman, the emergence of regret in the past before wearing the veil, and its significance. And third, the internalization process, which is shown by the use of the veil as daily clothing, the spirit of preaching both on social media and in organizations to invite others to wear the veil.


Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rizwan Ahmad ◽  
Sara Hillman

AbstractThis study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar’s government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The study contributes to a growing body of work on the sociolinguistics of crisis communication. We focus on the use of South and Southeast Asian languages, spoken largely by blue-collar migrant workers, which are often seen as peripheral even though they are spoken by a large segment of the population. The deployment of these languages during Qatar’s COVID-19 awareness campaign assumes further significance against the backdrop of a series of measures taken by the government in the last few years to strengthen the status and use of Arabic. We analyze multilingual printed pamphlets, multilingual audio-visual communication through radio and social media, as well as interviews conducted with key figures who were part of the awareness campaign. Our examination of the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability of the multilingual awareness materials reveals that while the different languages and modes of communication were important in spreading awareness, equally critical, if not more, was who carried the information and in what forms. We show the significant roles community and religious leaders and social media influencers played in disseminating the awareness information to the diverse migrant language communities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Ila Nagar

Abstract When a society faces a moment of crisis, its language can mirror, expose, and reinforce societal chaos and fault lines. As India came to terms with COVID-19, the coronavirus’ impacts on different populations exposed and widened India's deep social, economic, and religious divides. This article studies the language of India's response to COVID-19 surrounding three major events that occurred in the early months of the pandemic: the janta curfew, the Tablighi Jamaat incident, and the migrant worker crisis. Through an analysis of media reports, speeches made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and representations on social media, we see how forms of linguistic trickery—silence, presuppositions, accommodations, othering, dog whistling, and povertyism—were used to suppress, harm, and marginalize two minority groups: Muslims and migrant workers. This article demonstrates how those in power use language to reflect, shape, and reinforce meaning, social hierarchies, and marginalization in a time of crisis. (Linguistic trickery, othering, silence, presupposition, accommodation, dog whistling, povertyism)


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