MOROCCAN DIASPORA IN FRANCE: COMMUNITY BUILDING ON YABILADI PORTAL

Yıl 2017, Cilt: 12 Sayı: 1, 1 - 8, 05.01.2017

Tarik Samak

Öz

Over the last decade, social networking sites emerge
as an ideal tool of communication that facilitate interaction among people
online. At the same time, in a world which is characterized by massive waves of
migration, globalization results in the construction of the diaspora who seek
through new ways to build communities. Within this framework, while traditional
media have empowered diaspora members to maintain ties and bonds with their
homeland and fellow members, the emergence of social media have offered new
opportunities for diasporas to get involved in diasporic identity and community
construction. The creation of several diasporic groups on social media like
Yabiladi.com and WAFIN.be, respectively in France and Belgium, emphasize the
vital role they play in everyday lives of the diaspora. To study the importance
and implications of these online communities for diaspora members and
investigate their online practices, this article carries out a virtual
ethnography of the Moroccan community on Yabiladi portal in France. By
means of the qualitative approach of interviews, this article aims at
justifying whether the online groups of diasporic Moroccans in France can be
defined as communities, and whether social networking sites can be considered
as an alternative landscape for the diaspora to create links with other
diasporic members. This article, through users’ experience, provides deep
understanding of Yabiladi members’ beliefs about the “community” and their
online daily practices which enable them to “imagine” it as a community.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Moroccan Diaspora, Community, Social Networking Sites, Internet, Ethnography

Kaynakça

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