Connections: The Use Social Associations With Migratory Background Make of ICT to Build Social Capital for Newcomers’ Social Integration

Abstract

Psychological studies in the field of migration attest that social integration is enhanced by social capital. Communities of origin and the ones of resettlement play different role in the promotion of newcomers’ social integration. Nevertheless, researches highlighted that connections between migrants and resettlement communities are the hardest to be established. By reinforcing existing ties and generating new connections among communities, information and communication technologies (ICT) represent a resource for the creation of migrants’ social capital. The article presents two case studies addressing the use that a refugee- and a migrant-led association make of ICT to develop social capital aimed at fostering newcomers’ social integration. An ethnographic approach was adopted, and qualitative data have been collected. Results show that in the associations ICT are aimed at easing connections within migrants and between migrants and the resettlement community by directly fostering the establishment of social ties and by spreading positive narratives about migration. Through the empowerment of refugees and migrants, ICT emerge as tools that lay the foundations for the promotion of social cohesion.

Keywords

information and communication technologies ICT community informatics CI social capital refugees migrants

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