The politics of transnational affective capital: Digital connectivity among young Somalis stranded in Ethiopia

Abstract

This article presents an explorative qualitative case study of how sixteen young Somali migrants stranded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia feel about staying in touch with loved ones abroad using Internet-based transnational communication. Left-behind during transit migration from Somalia to overseas, at this moment they can only digitally connect with contacts living inside for example dreamed diasporic locations in Europe. Based on in-depth interviews, a focus group and concept maps drawn by informants the ambivalent workings of affects spurred by transnational communication are explored. The intense feelings of togetherness originating in Skype video-chat, mobile phone calls and Facebook use are conceptualized with the notion of transnational affective capital – one of the only sources of capital the informants have. The ambivalence of transnational affective capital is scrutinized by exploring whether such connectivity routines offer trust, enable anxiety management and promote ‘ontological security’. Alternatively, the question arises whether transnational communication may further exacerbate ontological insecurity: discomfort, unsettlement and increased anxiety related to the precarious situation of being stranded.

Digital Passages: Migrant Youth 2.0. Diaspora, Gender and Youth Cultural Intersections

“…A substantial amount of critical scholarship has emerged that probes the cultural politics of affectivity (Ahmed 2004(Ahmed , 2010Brennan 2004;Fortunati & Vincent, 2009;Jones, Jackson & RhysTaylor, 2014;Leurs, 2014a;Sedgwick, 2003;Turan Hoffman, 2014). However, affectivity remains understudied in migration and media studies: most previous research "on migration rarely captures the affective and emotional dimensions of global processes" (Boehm & Swank, 2011, p. 1).…”

“…The specific situation of the generation of young people born in the diaspora -descendants of those who have migrated -demands more attention (Wessendorfer, 2013), and especially their digital media use has been largely left unaddressed (Green & Kabir, 2012). Earlier work has shed light on how migrants use ICTs for transnational communication purposes with people in their country of origin (e.g., Georgiou, 2006;Leurs, 2014a;Miller & Slater, 2000;Vertovec, 2009). Besides transnational Skype and MSN Messenger conversations between the near and far connecting those who have migrated, those who have stayed and those in the diaspora, my focus on the particular configurations of age and generation revealed that second-generation migrant youth who are born in the diaspora were more concerned with the digital remediation of diaspora as an affective, symbolic marker.…”

“…They describe how "de Rumshop Lime," a collective online chat room, was used by young people at home and abroad to "lime," meaning to chat and hang out (2000, p. 88). Subsequently, for example, transnational communication among Basque (Oiarzabal, 2013), Chinese (Parker & Song, 2009), Greek (Georgiou, 2006), Filipino (Madianou & Miller, 2012), Indian (Mallapragada, 2006), Inuit (Christensen, 2003), Italian (Wessendorfer, 2013), Mexican (Byrne, 2008), Nigerian (Everett, 2009), Romanian (Nedelcu, 2009;Trandafoiu, 2013); Somali (Leurs, 2014a) and South Asian migrants (Gajjalla & Gajjala, 2008;Mitra, 2004) have been documented.…”

“…Myria Georgiou, in her study of transnational television viewing among Arab speakers in Europe, expressed that migrant "individuals have increasingly grounded their sense of ontological security on relational networks, which are often dislocated from the immediate locality" (2012, p. 307). Everyday affective forms of digital connectivity may become an emotional resource in the lives of migrants as they may accrue value in the form of "transnational affective capital" (Leurs, 2014a). It should be added that transnational communication, however, is appreciated mostly as a cheap and easy way of making do with difficulties involved in living at distance.…”

Editorial: Connecting (Forced) Migration and Media Studies

“…The digital co-presence of dispersed loved ones can play an important motivational role in enduring hardships in transit and for staying hopeful towards better futures elsewhere (Leurs, 2014(Leurs, , 2016Twigt, 2018). Meanwhile virtual practices provide asylum-seekers in Germany crucial ways of presenting themselves as the person they want to be or become, rather than the one that is being restricted by a lack of opportunities: as such it is the process of unbecoming a victimized refugee (Witteborn, 2015).…”