Digital Transnational Social Spaces of Romanians and Moldovans in Berlin

Abstract

This study focuses on the online community of Romanian speaking mobility migrants who live or regularly return to Berlin. Engaging with theories on transnationalism and social media, this article addressed the question of how digital transnational social spaces contribute to international migration, focusing on the integration into the host society. It is argued that social media groups of Romanian speaking migrants are community spaces which strengthen ties between members, thus facilitating international migration. Quantitative data was collected using open-sourced tools and analyzed employing descriptive statistics. Moreover, qualitative data was included stemming from the interactions with users of the observed Facebook groups. Data was gathered between 2020-2021, during Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing. It is concluded that digital transnational social spaces carry meaning to the migrant community, state institutions, social networks, and the state of research. For migrants, the existence of Facebook groups lowers the threshold of integration and allows the strengthening of social ties. Engaged institutions could rethink their communication strategy by considering a more active presence on social media, while the platforms could use digital communities as targeted audiences. Finally, the research has been enriched with a deeper perspective of not only if, but how social media impacts international migration.