Friday, July 14, 2017
Carnegie Room (University of Glasgow)
Since 2015 Europe is facing an unprecedented volume of migrant arrivals that put European aylum authorities under pressure. Deep internal divisions between Member States have been reignited, bringing in transit countries such as Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia to progressively close their borders to migrants. In parallel, a new type of migration is emerging: modern migration that relies on new technology, notably on social media. The instantaneity of social platforms offers migrants both the necessary information to map their journey through Europe and the means to keep contact with family and friends, and to build networks with unacquinated individuals beyond geographical, linguistic and cultural borders. With european institutions’ processing failing in dealing with the migration crisis, civil society in the Western Balkans takes action through social media by the creation of civic initiatives and associations that support migrants. Therefore, it becomes a relevant question to address what the role of social media in this changing context is, both from civil society and migrants point of view ? Can we consider social media a new form of participation to social solidarity for Western Balkans’ civil society as well as a tool to express the need of and the wish for democracy in the region? A subsequent question is: are social media a contributing factor of migrants’ integration in Europe as could develop their willingness to combine with others and to accept the necessity of compromise resulting from such cooperation?
