Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

This paper highlights the effects of social media utilization by Filipino migrants in central Italy, underscoring the effects controlling one’s image to their online networks has on their migrant livelihoods. Research was done through participation observation, interviews, and focus group discussions of twenty-five Filipinos, namely in the areas of Rome, Siena, and the Rieti province. The project delineates both the extent of social media use and its importance in these Filipino-Italian migrant livelihoods, further utilizing Harvey and Myers’ critical hermeneutic framework, which recognizes the lack of neutrality in evaluating narrative data, as the basis of my analysis. This work shows that Filipino migrant social media use goes beyond recreation and networking. It reaffirms a positive transnational imaginary. Different factors, including the degree of social media utilization, digital literacy, and affiliation to their Filipino culture, vary the degree such upholding take place. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that upholding this imaginary attempts to curb Italian xenophobic tendencies, most notably by displaying similar or analogous cultural values and traditions, for the host culture to further recognize and accept these migrants in society. The ethnographic lens through which this phenomenon is examined additionally highlights social media as a coping mechanism for the separation from loved ones, difficult work experiences, and other factors faced by Filipino immigrants in Italy.