abstract: In 2016, the United Nations reported a historical high of 65.6 million globally displaced people. Within the current protectionist and isolationist climate, the U.S is accepting a fewer number of refugees for resettlement than ever before and less governmental funding is being allocated to resettlement organizations, which provide support services for refugee resettlement and integration. Increased migration and the advancement of communication technologies with affordable access to these technologies have produced extensive communication networks and complex relational ties across the globe. While this is certainly true of all migrants, building and maintaining relational ties has added complexity for refugees whose journey to resettlement, economic insecurity, political disenfranchisement, and vulnerability impact the motivating factors for digital engagement. This dissertation seeks to understand to what extent Diminescu’s (2008) concept of the connected migrant addresses the lived experience of resettled refugees in Phoenix, Arizona. The connected migrant through Information Communication Technology (ICT) use maintains transnational and local networks that produce mobility and belonging. Connected migrants are able to produce and maintain socio-technical sociality abroad and in the country of settlement to create and access social capital and resources. Using a grounded theory approach and qualitative methods, this research project explores concepts of mobility, connectivity, and belonging in relation to resettled refugees. The research indicates that age, imagined affordances, digital literacy, language, and time moderate connectivity, belonging, and mobility for resettled refugees. Finally, I offer the concept of transnational contextual relationality to understand refugee communication strategies with the transnational and local network. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication Studies 2019

This dissertation explores how developed digital media technology influences individuals’ daily lives and their everyday practices. Furthermore, it examines how digital media usage has impacted diasporic members’ identity construction process. With the example of the Korean diaspora in the United States as a case study, this dissertation focuses on the impact of digital media, first, in regard to the ways in which diasporic members communicate with others and respond to the national and social issues of the homeland, and second in regard to their understanding of themselves, as well as their surroundings. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with 35 Korean immigrants and my fieldwork in the New York City, Jersey City, and Philadelphia metropolitan areas from October 2016 to March 2017, this dissertation examines how and to what extent Korean diasporic members have connected to and paid attention to their homeland issues, and how they have responded to them, in tandem with the development of media communication technology throughout the immigration history of the Korean diaspora. This research finds that the advent of digital media has had a significant impact on the Korean diaspora. Despite a generational split in terms of Korean diasporic members’ digital media usage, all of my interviewees use digital media on a daily basis to interact with others, regardless of geographical limitations. As a result, global digital diaspora enables Korean diasporic members to reconfirm the significance of the Korean diaspora. These members recognize the Korean diaspora not as an exclusive community limited to specific local individuals, but rather as a transnational community on a global level. Hence, Korean diasporic members’ self-identification is often based on such an understanding of the Korean diaspora. / Media & Communication

I denna studie har vi undersökt hur individer i diaspora upprätthåller sin identitet via digital media. De teoretiska ramverk som vi har använt i denna studie är diaspora, digital diaspora, identitet, digitala medier, digital diaspora communities och hybriditet. Vi samlade vår data genom kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer och data analyserades med tematisk analys. Respondenterna som vi intervjuade var studenter från Mittuniversitet med utländsk härkomst. Vi höll intervjuerna i grupprummen på Mittuniversitetet. Inspelning av intervjuerna varierade mellan 20–40 minuter. Resultatet av vår studie visade att respondenterna i diaspora använder digitala medier för att bekräfta sin identitet, skapa hybrid identiteter och upprätthållning av sin identitet. / In this study, we examined how individuals in diaspora maintain their identity via digital media. The theoretical framework we have used in this study is diaspora, digital diaspora, identity, digital media, digital diaspora communities and hybridity. We collected our data through qualitative research interviews and analysed it with thematic analysis. The respondents we interviewed were students from Mid Sweden University with foreign background. We held the interviews in the group rooms that Mid Sweden University offer. Recordings of the interviews varied between 20-40 minutes. The study shows that in the diaspora they use digital media to confirm their identity, create hybrid identities and in maintaining their identity. / <p>2020-07-06</p>

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Cette thèse s’intéresse aux rôles des TIC dans la constitution de la diaspora ouïghoure. L’approche sociologique choisie a permis d’aborder cette question sous l’angle politique et communicationnelle mais aussi historique et géographique et de prendre en compte tant les aspects idéologiques, sociaux qu’institutionnels et organisationnels. Les communautés ouïghoures à l’étranger commencent à être visibles et créent des organisations officielles représentant leur cause. La première partie met en évidence un réseau complexe constitué des communautés ouïghoures institutionalisées qui sont en interaction entre elles et avec le pays d’origine à travers les TIC, le Congrès Mondial Ouïghour rassemblant la majorité de ces associations. La deuxième partie montre à travers les analyses quantitatives et qualitatives de la cartographie du web ouïghour 2010 et 2016, l’apport et des limites des TIC dans le processus de construction de la diaspora. Cette analyse croisée a permis dans la troisième partie de comprendre et d’interpréter les formes d’identités qui se construisent : identité ethno-nationale ou ethno-culturelle ou ethno- religieuse, et les compromis sociaux qui tentent de se déterminer par des processus de négociation dans l’espace virtuel et au sein des institutions. Ce travail de recherche dévoile les différentes finalités recherchées par les acteurs tant officiels que lambda et de voir dans quelle mesure de nouvelles formes de régulations sont susceptibles d’aboutir à un nouveau compromis entre les acteurs. Mais pour l’instant, il n’existe ni de stratégie commune, en particulier vis-à-vis des politiques à tenir face à la Chine, ni une identité commune, mais des identités de la migration ouïghoure. / This thesis focuses on the constitutive role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the Uyghur diaspora. The sociological approach adopted in this thesis not only examines the aspects of politics and communication of this issue, but also allows a historical and geographical study which also takes into account the ideological, social, institutional and organizational points of view, as Uyghur communities abroad start to be visible and create formal organizations representing their cause. The first section of the thesis highlights, through ICT, a complex network of institutionalized Uyghur communities that interact with each other and their countries of origin, and demonstrates that the World Uyghur Congress is the most dominant of these associations. The second section shows, through quantitative and qualitative analysis of the mapping of the Uyghur web in 2010 and in 2016, the contributions and limitations of ICT in the diaspora construction process. This cross analysis sheds light in the third section on the forms of identities that are constructed, such as ethno-national, ethno-cultural or ethno-religious identity, and the social compromises tentatively formed through the negotiation process in virtual space and in the institutions. This study reveals the different purposes sought by both official and lambda actors and examines how new forms of regulation are likely to reach a new compromise between the actors. Presently, however, there is neither a common strategy, particularly vis-a-vis the political dealings with China, nor a common identity, but different identities of the Uyghur migration.