Abstract
This research investigates digitally mediated diasporic formations. It focuses on the role of mothering experiences in diaspora-making by looking at three migrant communities in the Netherlands—Romanian, Somali, and Turkish—and their uses of digital media. The aim of the dissertation is to show how mainly Amsterdam-based mothers from the three communities
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choose and use certain digital and social media platforms in order to strengthen their diasporic connections, both locally and transnationally. Drawing from feminist and migration studies, I propose the concept of diasporic mothering to emphasize how migrant mothers build communities through work of cultural reproduction, collective identity construction, and stable homemaking practices.
I argue for the understanding of diasporas in the context of changing political, historical, and social contexts. By privileging an ethnographic perspective and taking a non-media-centric approach, I show how not only digital media, but also the material dimensions of everyday practices shape how migrants connect, both transnationally and with each other within the diaspora community. Following these theoretical and methodological considerations, I define digital diasporas as heterogeneous and dynamic communities, marked by the intersection of gender, class, race, and ethnic differentiation, and embedded in everyday social interactions, in material and digital spaces.
The empirical part of the dissertation is based on one year of fieldwork with the three diasporic communities, in which the relation between digital diaspora formation and diasporic mothering practices was further explored. In the case of the Romanian community, I show how highly skilled migrant mothers mainly engage in diaspora formation via efforts toward aimed at the maintenance of family ties and heritage language transmission. I particularly emphasize how class and homeland politics are of high relevance for how these processes happen, both online and offline. In the Turkish case, I discuss the interplay between class and religion in how mothers participate differently in diaspora formation. I argue that homeland politics represent the terrain on which these divisions mainly play out, with privacy concerns structuring the digital mediation of diaspora groups. Finally, in the Somali analysis, I show how, despite classed differentiation, Somali mothers from different groups come together in diasporic formations. These encounters are shaped by the community’s diasporic memory of its tense relationship with Dutch child protection authorities. In addition, I argue that digital media has a secondary role in this process due to the Dutch migration policy context, which favors certain migrants’ physical, local, and neighborhood-based encounters.
This dissertation offers a situated perspective on (migrant) people’s digitally mediated sociality. In particular, a claim is made for the centrality of women’s and mothers’ reproductive work for community-building practices, with the concept of diasporic mothering seen as significant for the understanding of diasporic mobilizations. This gendered focus together with its non-media-centric approach aligns this dissertation with a larger humanities-based, feminist, and interdisciplinary tradition that critically unpacks the social values and power dynamics behind different technological advancements.
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