MOROCCAN DIASPORA IN FRANCE: COMMUNITY BUILDING ON YABILADI PORTAL
ABSTRACT: 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 Belguim, 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 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.
Penulis: Tarik Samak
Kode Jurnal: jpsosiologidd160374
