On-line identities and migrant youth: qualitative analysis of the criteria for choosing self-representative images

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to approach online social networks, since they are a privileged interactive space for social relations among young people. Specifically, it explores the use of the visual tools of digital socialisation in the processes of identity construction of young people with migratory experiences, assuming a perspective close to visual anthropology. This approach to visual self-designation from the adolescents' point of view allows us to advance in the issues that underlie the construction of identity in contexts of cultural diversity.

The study presented here is part of the project "The social relations of young migrants on the Internet from the perspective of interculturality" of the CMC group (Communication, Migration and Citizenship) of InCom-UAB, whose fieldwork has developed twelve focus groups with young migrants of both sexes in the provinces of Barcelona, Madrid and Vizcaya. These meetings ended with an experimental workshop in which the participating members had to reach a consensus on the choice of a certain number of photographs among those offered by the research group for the construction of a digital profile. The aim of these ad hoc workshops was to identify the commonalities underlying the choice of photographs for a hypothetical profile of the migrant group, distinguishing between male and female profiles.

Well, after conducting and analysing these workshops, it can be said that although young people apparently minimise differences of gender, ethnicity, country, religion or social class, these categories function, and not just a little, in the construction of their identity, as patterns of visual choice can be observed that respond to questions of gender, nationality of origin and even city of residence. In general terms, we can say that adolescents clearly identify with the cultural signs of their countries of origin and do so with pride, either directly by choosing images that explicitly point to their country or by showing a pattern of behaviour marked by the culture. It can also be said that not all cultures are the same and that there is a greater trace of Islam and Latin American culture than the European reference. And more so in women than in men, because it can also be seen that gender stereotypes are still at work today when it comes to defining identity.