Romanian Transnationalism, Mobility and
Integration in Sweden
Social Media Manifestations and Its Uses Among Migrants
Tudor Petrut Mihai
International Migration and Ethnic Relations
Bachelor Thesis, 15 credits, Spring 2020
Supervisor: Henrik Emilsson
Abstract
With the research aim to analyze how the Romanian migrants residing in Sweden use social media for transnational, mobility and integration purposes, this thesis builds on previous transnationalism and social media literature to reach its key findings. Its theoretical field uses Vertovec’s takes on transnationalism along with Wolpert’s place utility theory in order to analyze the observational results. These results were acquired by doing observations of four Facebook groups over a one-month period to which representative discussions from a few group posts were added. Thus, on one hand, the results show that the observed Romanian Facebook groups serve as avenues for socializing, networking and help-seeking between the Romanian migrants in Sweden. Strong potential for the formation of personal connections based on the discussions had by the migrants is also found. On the other hand, this thesis finds that the groups also function as major pathways for the reproduction of Romanian political and cultural aspects within the migrant community, a process which is not obvious and not directly intended for these groups.
Table of Contents
Abstract ... 2
Acknowledgements... 4
1. Introduction ... 5
1.1. Background ... 5
1.2. Aim and Research Question ... 5
1.3. Thesis Outline ... 6
2. Literature Review ... 7
3. Methodology ...11
3.1. Research Definitions, Ethics and the Public Versus Private Debate ...11
3.2. Epistemological and Ontological Considerations ...13
3.3. Data Collection and Categorization ...14
3.4. Theoretical Field ...17
4. Results ...18
5. Analysis ...21
5.1. Taking on Transnationalism ...21
5.2. Consciousness and Locality ...23
5.3. Cultural and Political Reproduction ...24
5.4. Utility, Mobility and Morphology ...28
5.5. Travel as an Avenue for Transnationalism, Evaluation and Idealization ...29
5.6. Overarching Tendencies ...31
6. Conclusion ...33
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank my supervisor, Mr. Henrik Emilsson, for his valuable contributions and help without which this thesis would have looked quite differently.
A special thanks to my academic writing course teacher, Mr. Adam Gray, who has proven to be one of the best lecturers I have worked with and whose passion has deeply supported my interest in academic writing; the discourse in this thesis has been intricately written in no small part thanks to his knowledge and insights.
I’d also like to thank my university’s IMER professors, teachers and staff who have kept me engaged and interested in the migration and ethnicity field and provided me with the necessary background and teachings in the field.
A huge thank you to my parents and family for supporting me and my choices throughout the years and giving me the benefic material and intellectual resources to reach this finality.
Last but not least, my closest friend and PhD student, Cristi, has been instrumental in keeping me positively anchored to my academic and life goals; his constant contributions to both my
perceptible and rational prosperity set the chess board for me to navigate and achieve this higher point.
1. Introduction
1.1. Background
In an increasingly digital world, the internet and social media have become almost omnipresent. This is very true for the migration sphere, with social media having major effects on the
networking between migrants, the evaluation of a destination and decision to migrate as well as on the migrant’s integration in the destination country. Looking at the internal migration of the European Union (EU), we can see Romanians being among the top migrant groups since the country’s addition to the EU in 2007 (Eurostat, 2019). Furthermore, the Romanian migrants in Sweden, a well-developed country with a solid internet infrastructure, are having their migration mobility and integration influenced through their social media use while in Sweden. Thus, the migrant Facebook groups created for Romanians residing in Sweden are seeing interaction between members in many ways, from the desired function of the groups of connecting migrants and helping each other, to a few potentially underlying effects of the groups’ existence and usage. Already from the previous papers of Paraschivescu (2011, 2016) we can see major ways that transnationalism and destination utility among the Romanian migrant community is
apparent, while Dekker & Engbersen (2014) and Thulin & Vilhelmson (2017) draw more attention to how social media can affect migrants’ mobility and their decision making. In addition, an equivalent study similar to this paper was done by Plascencia (2016) on Mexicans residing in Barcelona and their usage of an existent migrant Facebook group. This represents, as also seen through this paper, a good comparison point and an interesting counterpart to the Romanians living in Sweden.
1.2. Aim and Research Question
A considerable number of Romanians in Sweden are using social media and, implicitly,
Facebook in some socializing way. Despite this reality, there is relatively very little literature on the Romanians’ usage of social media and its effects. It potentially has large impacts on the outcome of their migration and integration, which deserves to be studied in more depth.
Consequently, this paper aims at filling part of the gap in knowledge related to this and conducts empirical research into the Romanian migrants’ social media usage while in Sweden. In addition,
a discussion on implications and meanings is held, leading to this study’s research question: what does the social media usage of Romanian migrants show regarding their transnationalism,
mobility and integration in Sweden?
1.3. Thesis Outline
Before the data collection started, an extended literature review was performed, reading and surveying different studies and research articles. These range from topics on international migration, transnationalism and integration processes to topics about the influence of social media on social networks and its effects on migration. Additionally, research on Romanian migrants and their migration habits was also reviewed, research which approaches their migration not only from the social, real aspect, but also from the internet usage and how that affects them. Along with this, there was also a focus on the previous literature involving the Romanian migrants in Sweden with topics from their mobility and integration to the influence of social media on their migration decisions. After the literature review of the previous related research and studies on the same topic, I define this paper as a netnographic research, a subtype of the ethnography category, since it looks at what people do in a virtual environment, but still a naturally occurring setting. A discussion about the private versus public nature of the observed posts ensues, which is important when considering the ethical and accessibility implications these observations might have. However, based on the available facts and also previous rhetoric on the nature of internet conversations, the posts are taken at face-value by the researcher, as public posts accessible to all members. Likewise, the consent of the observed members and their ability to withdraw from the observed setting is debated and clarified. Along with this, the compression of distance is mentioned, since for internet-driven research this can always be a weakness of online research, which is acknowledged as such in this thesis as well. The
background and experience of the researcher, along with the considerations taken, account for this weakness. The methodology section also approaches the ontological and epistemological spheres of the argument and sets the discourse as a constructivist one. Following up on this, I describe the methods used and how they were applied. As such, the data collection was conducted through observations done on a few Facebook groups of Romanian migrants in
Sweden. Posted discussions and content were observed over a period of one month and
categorized accordingly, to be later used in analysis. In addition to this, some discussions were selected and later analyzed in the analysis section from posts that saw very high activity in the comments sections in order to give more insight and depth to the findings.
The theoretical basis of this study has its roots in Vertovec’s (2009) six takes on transnationalism and uses those takes to interpret the results of the transnational interactions within these groups. Additionally, along with previous literature based on it, Wolpert’s (1965) place utility theory is also used to assess more of the decisions and processes the migrants go through that they exhibit on these Facebook groups prior to arrival in Sweden. After all this is done, the paper looks at the results in questions and presents them grouped under seven different post categories, followed by the more in-depth observations of the representative active
discussions in the comments sections. With more than 500 posts observed and classified along with 6 comments discussions that saw over 200 replies in total, the material for analyzing and extracting valuable information from the social media usage of the Romanian migrants is plentiful and provides valuable understanding and conclusions. After a clear presentation, the results are analyzed using the previously described theories on transnationalism and place utility, along with the researcher’s own interpretation.
2. Literature Review
The main counterpart of this research is Plascencia’s (2016) study about the Mexican immigrants in Barcelona. A similar methodological approach is held there, with observations of Facebook posts done over a period of one month on one Facebook group of migrants. His main results predominantly consist of the “culture and tourism”, “Mexican food and migration” and “travel and school” categories dominating the observations. Plascencia’s conclusion is that, while there is still integration and exchange occurring in those groups, the main direction of the migrants is “to narrow lines and to look back to their homeland, slowing the process of opening socially in their new context” (Plascencia, 2016, p. 80). Although we cannot directly infer that this is the same case for the Romanians studied in this paper, it provides a natural resemblance to another
group of migrants in a very similar setting. Another core research for this thesis is Dekker & Engbersen’s (2014) article on how the migrant networks are transfomed and migration facilitated by the usage of social media. Their article is focused on migration as a whole and on virtual ties between groups as well as individuals. On the other hand, my thesis will be focused on the virtual groups and communities part of the digital ties, as well as look at one specific group, the Romanians. Nonetheless, their findings about how social media promote international migration are very relevant for my thesis. Moreso, their latent ties and insider knowledge sources findings are particularly relevant for my topic, as a big part of the observed groups are about exchanging information and services, while at the same time creating new knowledge and practical ties, with the effect of even real ties in some cases. As there is no direct previous research on Romanian migrants using the social media, the literature background for this part is composed of studies about the migration patterns, habits and transnational connections of Romanians in Europe and Sweden, along with studies on the influence of the internet and social media on migration as a whole.
One noteworthy concept that Dekker & Engbersen (2014) discuss is the digital divide. This divide characterizes the inequalities in access to social media and the internet that exist among migrants. This is important because “their participation in virtual networks increases their social capital” (Dekker & Engbersen, 2014, p. 404). A deeper level to this divide can be
observed, where the inequality consists not of the access to the internet, but of the difference in ability to use applications and virtual means in an online environment, which renders different outcomes depending on how skilled migrants are in using such digital means. Virtual ties can also be considered as having a lower level of trustworthiness since certain skills are required to use the internet, while the internet usage varies greatly with every region of incoming migration (Dekker & Engbersen, 2014). As the same authors have found, the untrustwrothiness also comes from the motivations of each individual that uses social media. These motivations can vary considerably, with deception and misinformation being spread where the true aims are
questionable (e.g. illegal migration). This previous research on the inequalities of digital use sets a good backdrop for the study of the Facebook groups of Romanians. Nevertheless, since all the observed members of the groups have access to the internet equally (they are all using it, as
observed), the divide only concerns their ability to use the functions of those groups. With Romania being a EU member with emigration towards Sweden, another EU member,
unthrustworthy reasons for misinformation an deception when it comes to migration are reduced, given the, more or less, universal and advantageous integration EU internal migrants receive in other European countries.
Another concept forwarded by Ciobanu (2015) is the theory of place utility, which approaches the way a country becomes a migration destination. This theory was first developed by Julian Wolpert and detailed in his paper “Behavioral Aspects in the Decision to Migrate” (1965). It postulates that the destination is evaluated subjectively using its utility to the migration (Wolpert, 1965, p. 162), and the theory “assumes knowledge about the destination, prior to the migration decision” (Ciobanu, 2015, p. 469). This knowledge is gained either through returning migrants or through social networks, usually at the location, networks that help with integration on the housing and job market, for example (Ciobanu, 2015). From this, we can expand the social networks to include the virtual ties created by the use of social media. Despite these networks not being the main factor of choosing the destination country, in this case Sweden, for Romanian migrants, they are becoming more and more influential and a stronger case can be made for their influence on the evaluation of the destination. With the advent and increase of technology in our daily lives, we can infer that it is a natural progression for the social media to become more and more influential, as I am going to show in this paper. Furthermore, previous research presented the important role of the information that is spread through social networks and how that influences the decision-making of the migrants (Castells, 2007, Cross et al., 2001). Adding the internet to these networks that are able to be extended through it has a large
signficance, especially when looking at the expanded social networks of family, friends and colleagues (as well as potential future friends and colleagues) that influence the decisions to move or remain for the migrants using social media (Larsen et al., 2007).
According to Paraschivescu (2011), the impact of transnational practices have low to no-effect on the economic and social integration of the migrants. Looking at the Romanians, we can potentially draw the same conclusion. Additionally, Paraschivescu found that “the incorporation of the participants … and their acculturation is translated into a material experience of
transnationalism through the practice of traditions, the sending of remittances and through transnational networks.” (Paraschivescu, 2011), further concluding that distance doesn’t impede transnational practices. This represents a good background for the study of Romanian migrants in Sweden as it sets some concepts of transnationalism that help with the research of more specific practices, such as the social media use. Furthermore, emotional and affective transnationalism can be defined as the tensions between the migrant and the host country and the following “emotional transformation” in the migrant as a result of these processes. (Paraschivescu, 2011). According to Paraschivescu, these processes are composed of the transformation itself, the emotional labour involved and the sense of belonging. As we will see later in this paper, these circumstances arise with the Romanian migrants in Sweden as well. Moreover, Emilsson & Adolfsson (2019) found that young Romanian migrants migrate to Sweden for a different lifestyle. One of the main reasons for this mobility is the work-life balance, which is “less hierarchical and less stressful and allows for more time off” (Emilsson & Adolfsson, 2019, p. 213). This correlates well with other findings of Romanian migrants, specifically
Paraschivescu’s (2011) which raised the finding that the presence of secure jobs and a sufficient income, even on a low-paid job, doesn’t impede integration and in some cases even helps it. Therefore, a good work-life balance plays hand-in-hand with job security and steady income. Another reason Emilsson & Adolfsson (2019) found for Romanian migrants moving to Sweden is the idealisation of the country itself and its values, based on views such as economic equality, absence of corruption, tolerance in social differences and reliable organisation (Emilsson & Adolfsson, 2019, p. 212). From the same paper, this idealisation mostly occurs prior to the arrival in Sweden, from previous positive experiences as tourists or students. However, we could take this further and posit that, in the context of my paper centered around social media entagled with transnationalism, this idealisation can occur in virtual, online spaces as well, propagated by the discussions between current, residing Romanian migrants in Sweden and potential ones.
Rooth & Ekberg (2006) confered from their study that many migrants arriving in Sweden, including Romanian ones, start with a lower level job than the one in their home
country. They called this “occupational mobility”, which, according to the same study, turns into upward occupational mobility once the migrant sets in. Learning the Swedish language had a
stronger impact on that upward trajectory as well (Rooth & Ekberg, 2006). To support this, they hypothesised that the occupational mobility is shaped as a U, with “immigrants’ first occupation in the destination country having a lower socioeconomic status than their home country
occupation” (Rooth & Ekberg, 2006, p. 60), followed by an upward movement in the mobility once the migrant improves his status on the labour market. Furthermore, Rooth & Ekberg (2006) added that those with a higher occupational level in their departing country will experience this U-shaped relationship more strongly. Additionally, to paint a clearer picture of the Romanian migrants in the EU and their mobility and integration, we can bring up a few statistics. In 2018, Romania still ranked in the top 5 EU countries with the most emigrants within the European Union, after reaching that spot when it joined the EU in 2007 and even having the highest percentage of internal migrants in the EU in 2012 (Eurostat, 2019). Furthermore, according to the Romanian National Statistical Institute, in 2018 20% of the active Romanian citizens aged 18 to 35 were living and working abroad in another European country (Institutul Național de
Statistică , 2019). These numbers further serve as a suitable setting for the application of
transnationalism theories and social media methods involving the Romanian migrants, having a large and active group with high mobility to observe and study.
3. Methodology
3.1. Research Definitions, Ethics and the Public Versus Private Debate
This research can be classified as an ethnographic research, since it looks at what people are doing, in this case the Romanian migrant groups. Silverman (2015) adds that ethnography involves understanding cultures and studying interactions in those cultures and their meaning. Brewer defines it as
“… the study of people in naturally occuring settings by methods of data
collections which capture their social meanings and ordinary activities involving the researcher participating directly in the setting in order to collect data in a systematic manner.” (Brewer, 2000, p. 312)
The naturally occurring setting and fields of the Romanians here are the Facebook groups in which they conduct their online communication; the data collected is represented by their posts and discussions, while the researcher takes part in the setting from a non-direct point of view. A sub-aspect of this is netnography, which is essentially virtual ethnography, through which the researcher is conducting observations by interactions in online chats and groups. As netnography looks at the online world with its online cultures and communities, Robert Kozinets (2011) describes those cultures and communities as social phenomena, adding that we can see the online communities on Facebook as “living, breathing, thriving communities” (Kozinets, 2011, 00:40). Additionally, the division between the physical and digital world when it comes to the internet and social media, along with its implications has become a debated topic since the internet was essentially invented and with the first online communities and discussion boards that had appeared more than 20 years ago. Silverman (2015) argues that there is no consensus yet
between social scientists on what is defined as public and private in an online environment. Even though a lot of the archived discussions and materials on forums and discussions groups, such as Facebook groups, are public, publically accessible and can be seen as public spaces, one could claim that public posts written by individuals are written and posted with an expectance of privacy and should be treated as such. Despite the rapid evolution of the internet and online environments, the fact that these arguments still have resonance on both sides means the issue is far from settled. For this research specifically however, the nature of the Facebook groups was taken at face-value, meaning that the data collection followed their self-defined aspect of public groups accessible by any of the members, with any posts and content being public and visible to any other member and treated as such.
Even though those discussions and posts are public and accessible to any member of the group, a dialogue on the ethics of this research should be held and presented. For one, since this is a research done online with no real-life interaction between the subject and the observer or the study itself, considerations about the subjects or researcher being in danger during the
observations can be ruled out. Using Silverman’s (2015) section on ethical guidelines, there are some key aspects to look at and apply. Since the Facebook groups can be considered a public space with thousands of members, with the majority only knowing a few other members
personally, stranger observations and interactions are happening between members all the time. This is supported by the discussions and analogies already made between online forums with their archived information and public spaces (Silverman, 2015, p. 158) as well, as discussed above. Therefore, informed consent won’t be needed, nor will it be practical to ask thousands of people for it. This consideration also waives the need for a “non-technical account of the nature and aims of the research” (Silverman, 2015, p. 149) given to the observed individuals. In addition, Silverman (2015) adds that withdrawal of the people observed should be available at any time. Given the nature of these online groups, there are options for individuals to make themselves and their activity within the group “invisible” to the observer using privacy options (even when they don’t know who the observer is), in addition to the option of leaving the group altogether. With this said, one ethical weakness of these internet observations is that physical distances are compressed. On one hand, Madge (2007, p. 668) appropriately describes the situation where the premise of a larger physical distance reducing the feeling of responsibility of a researcher is challenged by the distance compression provided by the internet. On the other hand, that compression of distance is only a virtual one, as the observed indivuduals can still be physically faraway. False assumptions and attitudes could be drawn based on this compressed distance appearance. Adding that, on the internet, the fact of observing a real person can fall behind a virtual appearance, the researcher can unintentionally forget that there are still real individuals being observed and therefore lose some sense of responsibility. However, given the researcher’s experience in this study and the time spent working on the internet, special
consideration was given to the members of the groups observed in order for that weakness to not become a reality.
3.2. Epistemological and Ontological Considerations
Taking a look at the epistemological and ontological aspect of this paper, a constructivist approach can be shaped up. Moses & Knutsen (2007, p. 166) describe constructivism through Kant’s view, saying that the ontological origin of constructivism represents “a recognition that the patterns we study are of our own making. […] Constructivists trace these patterns back to the scholarly mind that observes them, whereas naturalists understand the patterns to be an essential
part of nature”. As opposed to a naturalistic ethnographic approach where the representations of the subjects’ worlds are faithful and achieved by “minimising the researcher’s presuppositions” (Silverman, 2015, p. 263), this thesis’ constructivist approach involves “a focus on participants’ practices in which accounts are treated as narrative accomplishments rather than as true or false reports on reality” (Silverman, 2015, p. 263). As such, the posts and discussions the group members are having in the Facebook groups were treated as interpretations and accomplishments of their migration and integration processes, rather than as direct, transmitted facts from reality.
3.3. Data Collection and Categorization
Regarding the main method of collecting the data, observations were done on four Facebook groups of Romanian migrants in Sweden. These groups had no specific purpose other than for Romanians in Sweden to come together, socialise and help each other. The language of posts and discussions used in the groups was Romanian. The interactions were still strongly moderated by the administrators of the groups; hate speech, racism and insults weren’t allowed. It is worth noting that the largest group observed had, among its rules, specifically forbidden any politically “intrusive or offenssive” posts, albeit news or discussions. The decision to remove or leave such a post public after being posted was left at the hand of the administrators and their judgment. In order for the observations to be done, I requested joining two of the groups (I was already part of the other two) and answered the security questions. Being a Romanian myself granted me access without complications. These observations were conducted as such: going back from 24 March to 24 February, each main post (not comments on posts) was observed and added to one of the categories listed below according to where it fit, using my own evaluation. Posts that were removed or deleted before the observation could be conducted were not counted. In cases where the same piece of content was posted twice one after another within a few minutes, only one observation was counted. In some cases, some posts, like transport offers for persons and packages were counted in both the “travel” and “services” categories. After the observations for each group were finished, they were pooled together into a total number of observations for each category. These categories amount to 7, which are as follows:
• Accommodation – renting ads, ‘looking for’ posts, questions
• Travel – selling airplane/bus/minivan tickets, looking for transport to and from Sweden, travel news, questions, border crossing, documents, migration topics
• Work – vacancy ads, ‘looking for’ posts, questions, current jobs discussions
• Services – promotions, ‘looking for’ posts, delivery, home-made products, repairs etc. • Sell & Buy – members selling and looking to buy different things
• News articles – TV and videos from news agencies, Swedish news, Romanian news • Culture – discussions, off-topic, videos, funny posts, Romanian cultural content (jokes,
traditions, food, music etc.), political jokes
The observations along with the categories were stored and grouped in an Excel file that was then used to calculate the totals and different other aspects, such as post rate per day (of which not all are presented here due to lack of relevancy and over-complications). As a follow up to the post observartions, out of all the categories, 2 culture posts, 2 travel, 1 news and 1 work posts were chosen in order to look more into how the interaction and usage of these groups is
conducted. The target was to have two posts from each of these four gategories, given that they were selected based on the number of responses (over 10 per post), however only the culture and travel ones were found to be substantial in their comments. The posts that were selected had dozens of active comments that engaged in discussions and reactions and it was done in order to give more depth to the observations and a new level of analysis and clarity to their interpretation, as well as better portray the environment of interactions in these Facebook groups.
When talking about the four groups, two of them were selected based on the researcher already being part of them at the start of the observation period and noting the abundant interactions happening there, while the other two were selected from a larger pool of 7 groups, based on the level of activity. For example, most of the groups, for the chosen observation period of one month (24 February – 24 March) had roughly 10 posts a day. However, the larger group found, which compared to the other groups had more than double the members number, had around 30 posts per day. This was creating an imbalance of observations with the other groups, since the number of posts in each category was wildly different and higher, to the point where
almost 50% of the observations in those categories would be represented by one group. Therefore the larger group was eliminated from the selection pool. Likewise, but on the low number of posts, one group was removed due to having virtually only one member contribute with posts daily, which were also only news posts. Thus at that point, it would effectively mean that instead of a group, only one person with one category was observed.
The groups that were selected and used in the research all had comparable number of posts and members during the observation period. They had members leaving and joining each day and therefore their member numbers are stated approximately. Two groups had around 5000 to 6000 members, one of them had around 12000 members, while the last one had 1500
members. However, the higher and lower numbers were balanced by the number of posts which were comparable to the other two groups. A noteworthy mention here is the fact that, according to the Statistics Sweden (2019) website, at the end of 2019 there were approximately 33000 Romanian migrants in Sweden. Compare this number to the total number of members from the groups observed in this paper, which is around 25000, and we could draw the parallel that these groups represent most of the Romanian migrants in Sweden. However, fot this thesis, there was no sure way to determine wether the 25000 members totaling the members in the 4 groups were unique individuals. For example, one individual could be part of multiple groups at the same time and therfore lower the number of unique individuals. This represents one of the drawbacks of this approach using total member numbers to analyze the results. Another weakness of this numbers aspect is that there are still 8000 members unaccounted for, meaning that are not present and using these Facebook groups, which represent a significant portion of the total
number of Romanian immigrants stated by Statistics Sweden. Nonetheless, this thesis anlyses the usage of social media by the Romanian migrants in Sweden in any quantity they are present on these Facebook groups. Thus, the significance of the numbers stated above becomes secondary or even lower, as the main goal was to look at the trends and ways the migrants are using these groups. Likewise, we could postulate that the potential 8000 members not using these Facebook groups do not affect the results and analysis, as, reiterrating, the paper looks only at the online population of Romanian migrants and doesn’t theorise about the absence of migrants from the groups.
All in all, since the research takes into account the total number of posts in each category from all four groups, looks at the total number of Romanians active in those groups and doesn’t look at the groups individually, past some general remarks, we can say that having roughly unequal number of members and posts is not detrimental to the results.
3.4. Theoretical Field
The theoretical field of the thesis uses transnationalism as the main concept. Vertovec (2009) describes six takes on transnationalism, all of which are relevant to this thesis. In short, they are: transnationalism as social morphology, transnationalism as a type of consciousness,
transnationalism as a mode of cultural reproduction, transnationalism as an avenue for capital, transnationalism as a place of political engagement and transnationalism used for the
(re)construction of place and locality. First of all, social morphology talks about social
formations such as diaporas and social networks. Diasporas today have transformed more into transnational communities, and along with the social networks, are facilitated by the
development of newer and more complex ways of networking. Second of all, Vertovec (2009) talks about transnationalism as a type of consciousness (Vertovec, 2009, p. 5). This would be described as multiple bonds from the individuals that feel as a “home away from home”. Schiller, Basch, & Blanc-Szanton (1992) also write that “the majority [of migrants] seem to maintain several identities that link them simultaneously to more than one nation” (Schiller, Basch, & Blanc-Szanton, 1992, p. 11).
Next, Vertovec (2009) brings into the discussion transnationalism as a mode of cultural reproduction. This is roughly defined as “a fluidity of constructed styles, social institutions and everyday practices” (Vertovec, 2009, p. 7). Thus, fashion, music and other visual arts are among the most common fields where this fluidity can be observed. Following up, his take on
transnationalism as avenue of capital is described through the eyes of transnational corporations, which can be seen as key. This can be even more important when considering people migrating for work and sending remittances or bringing over their families.
On the other hand, looking at transnationalism as a site of political engagement through which support is mobilised, information is disseminated and feedback is gathered (Vertovec,
2009) is a very pertinent lens, as Vertovec describes much of the transnational political activity being done by and through NGOs and ethnic diasporas. Last of Vertovec’s takes on
transnationalism is the (re)construction of place and locality. Looking at geographical and
historical practices, they have been “regrounded” and “transferred” (Vertovec, 2009, p. 12) along with the groups of people that moved. According to him, even though these practices are still dependent on the places where they originate from, for every specific group and entity, the processes of constructing a place and locality through transnationalism are also being changed by the technological advancement. Thus, Vertovec (2009) describes this as trans-local
understandings. Additionally, another theory that applies to this research well is Wolpert’s place utility theory (1965). To the migrant, the destination’s advantages and functions are assessed personally by the individual, using social networks, previous trips to the location and returning individuals, which precedes the decision to migrate (Wolpert, 1965). Adding to this theory, it can therefore be argued that the Facebook groups and virtual networks formed by these are an
extension of the social networks used to assess a destination, and function in the same way.
4. Results
The four Facebook groups chosen were as follows:
• “ROMANII DIN SUEDIA (1)” - ~5000 members • “ROMANII DIN SUEDIA (2)” - ~6800 members • “Romani in Malmö si imprejurimi” - ~1500 members • “Romani in Suedia” - ~12000 members
The total number of posts that were observed over the one-month period was 606, split in the 7 categories. The category with the highest number of posts was the culture one, with 220 posts, which include cultural content like jokes, music, videos, political humour and watch parties. A large part of these cultural posts was also made up by the Spring holiday celebrations, festivities and traditional wishes. On the other hand, part of these posts was formed of Romanian political jokes and satire. This category also includes more specific political posts that tread the boundary
between political satire and negative inciting in the Romanian sphere (which is why I could observe them and were not taken down by the administrators). Posts like adverse criticizing and slander against one Romanian political party in power and personal opinions that could translate into attacks towards that party are examples of this. The second category was the services one with 131 posts, with people advertising services such as delivery firms and restaurants, as well as persons looking for such services. It is worth mentioning that a large portion of these services posts had a traditional and cultural aspect, such as restaurants with Romanian food or shops and individual persons creating Romanian-specific objects and souvenirs. Third was the news category, with 95 posts, where news from newspapers and TV channels were shared; despite its high number, this category was one of the least active ones in terms of comments and
discussions, with a few outliers. Lastly, the accommodation, travel and work categories were relatively close together in number of posts, with travel and work both having 54 and
accommodation seeing 42 posts. These categories didn’t hold much depth in terms of interaction processes between members, however the travel posts definitely increased in activity and
numbers towards the end of the observation period, potentially as a result of the global events that led to border closures and lockdowns, some of which had very representative discussions of the mobility and integration processes of Romanians in Sweden.
Number of posts, from 24 February to 24 March 2020, on the 4 Facebook groups
Accommodation Travel Work Services Sell & Buy News Culture Total
42 54 54 131 10 95 220 606
Table 1. Number of posts, from 24 February to 24 March 2020, on the 4 Facebook groups
The following observations of the discussions held in the comments sections were more revealing about how these posts on Facebook are used by the Romanian migrants. One representative culture post entailed the Romanian president telling everyone to stay home for Easter (due to the virus situation), with the discussion in the comments either commending him
or criticizing him. Some political arguing occurs as well, however the interesting addition to this is the comparison that some people were making between Romania’s measures and Sweden’s measures around the lockdowns in this case. This can be seen as Vertovec’s take on
transnationalism as a type of consciousness and as the migrant’s destination country as a second home away from home (Vertovec, 2009), which will be expanded upon in the analysis below. Another culture post involved a religious discussion around the birth of Jesus and his religion, either Christian or Jewish. This discussion was quite civilized given how we know the average discussion on religion on the internet usually goes. It’s worth mentioning this type of cultural discussion because, for one, according to TNS Opinion & Social on request of European Commission (2010) Romania is one of the most religious countries in Europe, and it is furthermore telling that Romanian migrants in Sweden are engaging so much in discussions about religion while living and working in a country that is known to be among the least religious in Europe (TNS Opinion & Social on request of European Commission, 2010).
Moving on to the news category, one post was about the news that Sweden was enforcing boarding the busses through the back of the bus and not near the driver. The author of this post on the group also pointed out vehemently that many Romanians are supporting the Swedish government in its measures. The discussion on this was overwhelmingly in favour of Sweden with members endorsing Sweden’s approach and encouraging any Romanian migrant that doesn’t like their life and society in Sweden to leave and go back home. Comments such as “If you don’t like it in Sweden, what are you still doing here? No one’s a prisoner, feel free to leave and go back” (translated from Romanian) were prevalent on posts like this and others where Sweden was seen in high regard among the Romanians.
In the work category, one question post that highlighted the integration and mobility aspects of the social media usage on these groups was present. The question came from a
working man residing in Sweden whose wife with a university teaching degree intended to come from Romania to work as well. He was asking how easy it is for her and her competences to find a job and where she should look first. The comments discussion saw people suggest different career paths she can take as well as propose the Swedish Workforce Agency as a starting solution. Another part of the discussion was about the suggestion to go into the cleaning, lower
level jobs, since according to the author of the comment, it is easier to find jobs there, but how that might not be an optimal choice given her university degree and how other Romanian migrants with higher education in Sweden avoid taking lower level jobs at first. Lastly on this post, others commented how Sweden always needs teaching personnel but that knowing Swedish is a hard requirement for a job in education.
The last category I am going to talk about here is the travel category, that saw a
significant increase in activity after the lockdown and border closures started shaping up, which coincided roughly with the middle of the data collection period for this paper. One question post was about someone visiting Sweden as a tourist from Romania and whether there is an enforced quarantine on arrival. The comments ambiguously ranged from no quarantine to only residents being allowed to enter Sweden, which showcases the spectrum of answers, which are also often wrong, one can get while seeking help on these groups. Another travel post was coming from a Romanian resident in Sweden asking what his visiting wife needs to declare as reason for travelling before departing Romania and before landing in Sweden. The ensuing discussion was very ample with over 100 replies and involving over 40 participants, discussion out of which a large section branched off into a different discussion about someone going back to Romania from Sweden and how that will go for them. Another large part encompassed comparisons between Romania’s and Sweden’s measures of dealing with travelers in this period, as well as some jokes and light mockery of their measures. Only one or two replies were on point, with personal experience dictating that she needs the husband’s residence documents and their marriage certificate in order to travel.
5. Analysis
5.1. Taking on Transnationalism
Approaching the Romanian diaspora and transnationalism using Vertovec’s theoretical field through the lens of social media is a pertinent concept. Using the social morphology aspect, we can see how the diaspora has transformed more into a transnational community, with more complex ways of networking. To this, we can link the modern contribution of the internet. For
example, since the research detailed in this paper essentially uses the social media and the internet, the influence of these virtual means in the creation and maintenance of a Romanian community and Romanian migrant networks is very strong. Applying the transnationalism as a type of consciousness to the Romanian migrant groups observed also renders it is a clear attribute of their activity. The simultaneous identities described by Schiller, Bash & Blanc-Szanton (1992) are evidently exposed through the migrants’ sharing of news and discussions about both the origin and host countries, often at the same time.
It is worth mentioning that, to the defined transnationalism as a mode of cultural reproduction using fashion, music and visual arts to exhibit the cultural fluidity, a few other categories can be added, in the case of the Romanian migrants and their Facebook groups. Based on the observational results, the traditions and humorous fields are very relevant. Traditions which include domestic food and music along with the services that come with them, festivities and even manufacturing of Romanian-specific souvenirs and gifts. The humorous field is comprised of political jokes and comic content (through videos and photos), as well cultural Romanian humour, which more colloquially can be seen as inside jokes (e.g. jokes that only a group can understand until explained) at a national or ethnic level. Regarding the political engagement of transnational practices, we can see in the results that Romanians are usually a very politically-oriented migrant group. This can also be extracted from Claudia Paraschivescu’s discourse throughout her paper (Paraschivescu, 2016). Given the fact that a lot of discussions and socialising within the Romanian migrant commnity of Sweden seem to be centered around political topics and debates and furthermore with a clear outcome of transnationalism as political engagement within the Romanian diaspora, an extension to online communities and groups of these transnational practices is natural. A large active part of these Facebook groups, where the possibility and sometimes even the observed engagement of political entities and institutions is present, can be influenced by this political engagement.
Lastly, analysing the (re)construction of a place and its locality by migrants can often be dependent on their movement and practices. Be that as it may, today the locality transferring and regrounding processes are challenged by the fundamentally widespread presence of
groups in Sweden and how wide their social media usage is (Dekker & Engbersen, 2014, Davidescu, Strat, Grosu, & Zgură, 2017, Nagy, 2014), this approach with trans-local
understanding is self-evident through their usage of the internet and free movement within the European Union.
5.2. Consciousness and Locality
Looking at the result table we can immediately see the cultural category as the one with the highest number of posts. This can already be deemed as a sign that these Facebook groups, in addition to the social networking and information environments they provide, are also cultural spaces where Romanian cultural content such as domestic music, food, jokes and political humour is spread. Furthermore, a good part of the services posts, which is the second highest category, were services involving some type of Romanian tradition or cultural aspect. Examples of such services include traditional restaurants with Romanian food either opening up in Sweden or already existing and advertising themselves; handmade products and souvenirs with specific Romanian motifs and Romanian singers and comedians going on tour in Sweden and
surrounding countries advertising themselves to the migrants. This paints a clearer picture of one of the purposes of these groups. I would postulate that this heavy cultural usage of the groups is a rather unintended and natural development and not their direct target, as their stated purposes are to connect the Romanian migrants and share information and help. To take this further, we can use a few of Vertovec’s takes on transnationalism to approach this cultural aspect.
Firstly, these cultural discussions and posts can be seen as a type of consciousness in Vertovec’s terms (Vertovec, 2009, p. 5), with a space that feels as a “home away from home”. This home on Swedish soil is facilitated by the culture spreading on the Facebook groups, which can give the migrant living away from their original home a more familiar feel. Additionally, looking at how traditional Romanian restaurants and shops are used and established in Sweden, we can extract that that constitutes a reconstruction of the Romanian places and localities, in Vertovec’s concepts. It also aids the generation of the second home, away from home. To bring this back to the online groups, the transferring of traditions and the furthering of the locality reconstruction is supported and also challenged by the increased use of the social media. While
the transference is eased by the access and interaction on the Facebook groups, these virtual spaces also act as an ever-active and even omnipresent cultural and social space. This leads to the reconstruction mentioned above as, possibly, not needed, since the cultural space, practices and the locality feelings are always accessible through the social media, while the virtual spaces are also reducing the migrant’s sentiment of being away and isolated from his home. For
instance, given the widespread access to the internet a Romanian migrant has in Sweden, along with their presence there and the ample use of social media, their exposure to cultural practices and traditions never ceases. The absence of this exposure would more easily lead to a
construction of a place and locality. Therefore, this continuous exposure acts as an expansion of the Romanian locality present at home and partly eliminates the migrant’s desire or need to reconstruct it in the host country. Such a situation can be showcased by the observed religious discussion on the birth of Jesus and his religion. This acts as an example of the continuous exposure to the Romanian culture and locality, even when residing and engaging in Sweden’s daily life and society, that is also one of the least religious countries in Europe (TNS Opinion & Social on request of European Commission, 2010). We could hypothesize that, in a world without social media, such discussions would not occur without an already pre-existing formation and reconstruction of Romanian locality in Sweden, as well as pre-existing migrant bonds. While the cultural category of the results can be seen within the transnationalism
practices as a type of consciousness and a milder reconstruction of the Romanian locality, these aspects are facilitated by, potentially, a more overarching process.
5.3. Cultural and Political Reproduction
Considering the transnationalism present within the Romanian community in Sweden as a mode of cultural reproduction fits the situation at hand like a glove. The “fluidity” described by Vertovec (2009) is seen here as the circulation of traditions, domestic music, humour and political jokes on these Facebook groups. For example, the political humour can be observed in the cultural discussion from the results where people were discussing the Romanian president advising everyone to stay at home for the Easter holidays, due to the virus situation. Part of this discussion diverged into political jokes and humour. With Romanians already being a migrant
group that engages in domestic political discussions very often, as seen in these Facebook groups and also described by Paraschivescu (2016) in her paper, the heavy involvement into this type of humorous content is telling of that fluidity. This can be expanded to a wider area of cultural content, such as the Romanian domestic music, culinary discussions and traditions, along with their holiday wishes and festivities. We could therefore draw the idea that the transnationalism as a mode of cultural reproduction present within these online communities and social media
expedites the reconstruction of the locality and the re-creation of the “home away from home” by providing a more convenient space for them, even if still strongly linked to the origin country. With this in mind, there are other aspects of the usage of these Romanian Facebook groups, besides their cultural features, that are discernible from the results.
Looking at the type of transnationalism practiced within this virtual space as grounds for political engagement is a pertinent approach, especially when considering the level of political conversations the Romanians demonstrate here. The political jokes and humour detailed before, along with some of the discussions observed, support the idea of a political engagement site on these groups. A large part of the news and travel categories being composed of political posts and talks relating to Romanian politics also back that. Vertovec’s take on transnationalism as precisely grounds for political interaction where support and feedback are gathered and
information disseminated (Vertovec, 2009), is what’s happening in the political sphere of these Facebook groups. As mentioned before, Romanians like to engage in these discussions, along with satire and humour and that is very apparent here. For instance, the same post where the Romanian president was advising everyone to stay home for the Easter holidays saw clear political discussions with satire, serious discussions and also humour. Furthermore, the news post observed where it was detailed that Sweden started enforcing back-boarding for busses partly developed into a political comparison between Romania and Sweden and their measures. That specific post saw one of the participants vehemently accusing other Romanian migrants in Sweden of “siding” with the Swedish government and its people in the approach towards the virus. Given the considerable amount of responses towards the accusing participant that were essentially taking Sweden’s side and criticizing some of the Romanian political parties, with one specific reply saying that “he should go back to that Communist party in Romania while the
movement is still free” (translated from Romanian, referring to the Social Democratic Party, one of the main political parties), we can see clear political implications. To add to this, as we have seen from Emilsson’s & Adolfsson’s paper (2019), Romanians also tend to exercise their mobility towards Sweden due to the idealized values, absence of corruption and equality views. This is in direct contrast with the Romanian domestic political environment depicted by the Facebook discussions on these groups, one which goes the opposite way of that Swedish idealization. And while these feelings are imaginably already prevalent and very common at a physical, offline level, this online environment represents a good way to observe those feelings, since it doesn’t fail to faithfully capture and reproduce them and allow them to be observed. Thus, the accusing participant in the discussion about the busses described above is also exhibiting Paraschivescu’s (2011) affective transnationalism, as he appears to be in a tension state with the host country, Sweden in this case. Using Paraschivescu’s components, the sense of belonging may be the one involved the most in this situation, given the ample points of
comparison between Sweden and Romania brought into the discussion, facilitated by the potential emotional transformation. This transformation may already be at the make-or-break point, of deciding whether to stay in the host country or leave, given the replies of “take it or leave it” from the other participants and the opinions manifested. Be that as it may, I cannot go further into this specific analysis without delving into the psychological field and its implications with migration, which are not germane to this paper. Nonetheless, these manifestations of
opinions and interactions are common in these groups and display the increased political
participation of the migrants as well as their influenced and influencing views, along with some of their sentiments. Yet, they can indicate some other, potentially more overshadowing, matter.
As we have seen, negative or positive political opinions and content is already
disseminated on these groups. It comes from both institutions (several NGOs or the Romanian Embassy in Sweden, for example) and individuals, through news, promotions, political humour and satire, as well as opinions on different political actors. This can lead to less principled and more biased outcomes as political opinion and voting patterns can be influenced, willingly or otherwise, through the political activities on these groups. Consequently, we can look at this facet of the social media posts as an encompassing one for all the other political posts and replies
present. This could ultimately serve as a large-scale territory for political reproduction, information and opinion dissemination from which the other categories, such as humour and satire, emerge. Already, in the case of the idealization of Sweden, these online groups also function, to an extent, as a space for downplaying the Romanian politics and parties in favour of the better deal under the form of migration to Sweden. They are also good examples of the place utility theory in action, with its subjective evaluation of the destination and prior knowledge of it (Wolpert, 1965, Ciobanu, 2015). The social networks present here are doing the evaluation work for Sweden as a desirable destination while for Romania this assessment could lead towards the conclusion of a less advantageous country. That said, the reality of the social media persuasion on politics and political stances of migrants is inevitable, with these discussions being a natural part of the virtual space, as it results from this paper and from previous research, but it,
nonetheless, constitutes a cause for inquiry and future research.
Interestingly enough, these political discussions with all their facets can also represent a type of Vertovec’s cultural reproduction. Since these political posts and arguments are, at this point, common practice for Romanians (Ciobanu, 2015), and so widespread on these Facebook groups, we could assert that they are part of the Romanian culture. Rightly so, looking at the observations over the one-month period, political dialogues were occurring on a daily basis, leading to the idea, stemming from Vertovec’s characterization of culture propagation through transnationalism (2009, p. 7), these dialogues, arguments and social media posts are an everyday practice.
It may be noted that, citing Vertovec’s take about transnationalism being an avenue for capital through corporations and institutions, the results of this paper have yielded no clear image of such a capital avenue exhibited by the Romanians using social media in Sweden. Looking at the accommodation and work categories in the results we can see that they’re among the ones with the lowest number of posts. At an initial analysis, one might expect these two categories to be higher up for Romanian migrants in Sweden, as housing and job needs are always sought to be fufilled. However, the results show otherwise in this case; the shortage of work and housing needs noted can be linked to migrants looking for jobs through state institutions, which would give them a surer way of getting employed and therefore not needing to engage on social media
as much. Migrating to Sweden while employed for a company based in Sweden and having accommodation already provided can also explain the lower numbers for those two results categories. Overall, this could be understood as the groups being more about transnational concerns, such as culture and political circulation, rather than about integration on the housing and labour market.
5.4. Utility, Mobility and Morphology
That integration, however, is still apparent in some of these posts. Looking at the discussion evolved around the man asking for job market suggestions and help for his wife who was going to come live with him is an example of this. We can see clear implications of a labour market dialogue here, as well as a way to apply Wolpert’s place utility theory. This observed discussion presents two angles. Firstly, it constitutes an evaluation of the utility of Sweden (and the
husband’s environment) by both partners. This is furthered by the ample participation of other group members in the discussion, thus helping the potential migrant, his wife, in assessing and forming a preliminary idea of the destination. Given the positive and helpful responses to this request, we can also advance the idea that the image of Sweden created for the potential migrant is an idealization and a more positive one than that of the departure country, with replies
mentioning the lack of corruption and the need for workers on the job market in Sweden compared to Romania.
Secondly, Rooth’s & Ekberg’s occupational mobility concept can be applied to this Facebook group post to analyze the situation, with their analysis about mobility being U-shaped (Rooth & Ekberg, 2006) employed accurately. Given the post mentioned that the wife had a university teaching degree in Romania, she would already depart from a higher occupational status and arriving at a destination where she would, at least initially, start with close to no occupation. This is accentuated by some of the responses and suggestions on the post saying that she might need to start with a job in the cleaning field, jobs which are considered as low-level, low-paid, especially if she doesn’t know Swedish. This represents the bottom part of the U-shape, which is paired with the lower socio-economic status for the migrant when arriving. What is more, the analysis applies to an even greater extent here when considering that a teaching
university degree in Romania usually equates to a high and well-paid occupational status, which, using Rooth & Ekberg, translates into a stronger U-shaped relationship for the migrant once she arrives in Sweden and goes through the lower part. This would be followed by an upward mobility once the migrant settles and integrates on the job market, an upward trajectory which is often strongly aided by learning the Swedish language (Rooth & Ekberg, 2006). Reading some of the responses to the Facebook post, we can see some saying that teacher positions in Sweden are always in need of qualified employees, but that Swedish is mandatory in order to get those jobs. This couples well with the Swedish language remark from Rooth & Ekberg. Learning the language would mean an almost complete return to the same occupational status for the migrant as she had prior to arrival, therefore proving the increased effect on the upward occupational mobility of local language fluency.
Another lens that this observed discussion can be seen through is that of Vertovec’s social morphology, which is aided by the increased use of social media and internet in general. Thus, the creation of new connections and social networks is made easier through the interaction on these Facebook groups especially when considering the flexibility and relative ease of getting in contact with other migrants in the same country that are using the same virtual space. As such, the intercommunication between group members we’re witnessing on the work post detailed above can represent the formation of new connections that may result in greater effects down the road and also highlights one of the main usages of these Facebook migrant groups.
5.5. Travel as an Avenue for Transnationalism, Evaluation and Idealization
The last category of observed discussions to be analyzed here includes the travel dialogues. Despite not receiving a high number of posts for the observational period, it did make up the category with one of the highest comment activities out of all seven categories. For one, using Wolpert’s place utility theory along with Emilsson’s & Adolfsson’s (2019) idealization of the destination country, we can look at both discussion topics through the same lens. First off, in the case of the person asking about any quarantine measures for Romanian tourists on arrival in Sweden, we could theorize still a type of application for the place utility theory which sees the tourist gaining information, even if temporary one, on the destination through the social
networks present on these Facebook groups. Furthermore, once the tourist arrives in Sweden, the idealization described by Emilsson & Adolfsson (2019) from previous tourist experiences can take place, resulting in a potential migration to Sweden down the line. However, looking just at the Facebook post, we can see a vast extent of answers, ranging from no quarantine to entry given only to residents, an extent so large that it cannot serve as a reliable source of information for the question asked and for the migrant. Therefore, the evaluation and potential correct information gained through this post is rather a minimal one, yet it still describes the type of interactions taking place on these groups. Observed separately, many of these discussions don’t have an apparent effect on the mobility and integration processes as a whole, yet when they are looked at simultaneously, we can see and postulate clearer ideas and effects on the migration development.
The second travel discussion observed saw the author of the post asking for information about travel statements needed for his wife coming to visit him. This post again represents an application of the evaluation done through the place’s utility as well as the prior idealization through social networks. Since the post saw a lot of activity in the comments section with over 100 replies in total from over 40 participants, we can also apply Vertovec’s social morphology view of transnationalism. With the very strong activity displayed here, we can derive that a larger and more representative part of the Romanians active on these Facebook groups in Sweden was engaging in the formation of new connections and the ensuing social networking through this post. This formation of new connections is even more visible when looking at the separate topic that developed in the comments, which featured the exchange of information between someone who was going back to Romania from Sweden and other potential travelers with the same purpose. This separate discussion ended with the pledge that the person going back to Romania will update the conversation once she arrives and takes account of the arrival measures affecting Romanians at the airport. Like so, with this ending and assurance, we may be witnessing the formation of new social connections through the transnationalism created by these groups. In addition to the social morphology aspect, we can also apply Vertovec’s
transnationalism as a type of consciousness (Vertovec, 2009, p.5). Thus, through her husband living and working in Sweden, the wife has a bond to Sweden and a “home away from home”.
Expanding on this, the multiple identities described by Schiller, Basch & Blanc-Szanton (1992) that link migrants to more than one country can be recognized in a more definite manner here, with the husband representing the “anchor” to Sweden and the main source for the positive image of the country the wife has.
Another part of this travel discussion saw more political comparisons and humour between Sweden and Romania around the measures and general governing, which indicates the political engagement present in this dialogue. In the end, only one or two replies were counted as factually accurate, given they were citing personal experience of friends and family already having done the trip to Sweden and having gone through the procedures before departure and arrival. Considering the very high number of replies to this post and the level of activity, having only two accurate answers highlights the nature of the encompassing networking and interactions happening on these groups. When broken down to more individual pieces, the responses and conversations are not always realistically on point with a lack of clear, correct contributions to the discussions. Yet when looked at from a higher level of analysis, this type of communication is exactly what charaterizes these online groups and the usage of social media by the migrants. We can further regard that the sum of these discussions’ parts is greater than their meaning and interpretation when examining them as isolated from one another, which can then be expanded to the groups and their usage being more significant as a whole than when analyzed separately, albeit at a lower degree of significance than in the case of the groups and discussions.
5.6. Overarching Tendencies
After looking at and analyzing the results numbers while factoring in the follow up observations of the representative discussions, a few major, overarching characterizations seem to emerge for the social media and transnational use of these Facebook groups. First of all, a large portion of the posts in 4 out of the 7 results categories (travel, services, news and culture) have political elements in their discussions or in the original post, either through comparisons of measures between governments, political humour or constant referencing to the Romanian or Swedish political systems. A similar situation is present for the same categories with many posts featuring cultural elements in the original posting and comments section, such as Romanian cultural jokes,
allusions to traditions and specific Romanian ways of doing different things as well as references to music and Romanian arts, within those categories. To this point of cultural elements, in
addition to the 4 categories mentioned above, we could add a fifth, the work category. This is because the post observations in that category suggest a predominance of certain jobs over others preferred by the Romanian migrants using those groups and also certain prevalent professional backgrounds within those same migrants arriving in Sweden. However, in order to be more conclusive, this requires further research into the professional background of Romanian migrants in order to receive a more detailed verdict and determine its real effects, along with looking at the cultural implications of Romanians preferring certain jobs over others. What’s more, after looking at how the cultural and political elements have filtered in all of the main observed categories, we can see another larger trend.
The categories that do not feature major political and cultural elements in their posts, such as accommodation, work and selling and buying posts are already the ones with the lowest numbers of posts, which, when additionally taking into consideration the very absence of those conversational elements, are deemphasized even more in their implications for the social media usage described in this paper. Likewise, besides their separate manifestation in the categories and in the discussions, the culture and politics components are also commonly observed interwoven together in the same posts and sometimes even in the same comment. For example, looking at the comments to the news post about the back-boarding of busses enforcement in Sweden, we can identify both cultural and political elements. Allusions to ways the busses, their schedules and the way Romanians use them in Romania were present in regards to the cultural aspect (which tends to be seen as a specific Romanian way by Romanians), while for the political references, the same post saw jokes and comparisons between Sweden’s and Romania’s political systems. To press more on the instance where the same comment saw both culture and politics aspects, one of the comments to the post with the Romanian president Easter announcement had a mix of these two elements, alluding to both the political component (“You’re laughing at the Swedish government for not taking Romania’s measures, while also not being happy about the president wanting to maintain the measures. …” – translated) as well as continued with the cultural one (“… You’re commonly contradictory in your reponses as Romanians, who could
