{"id":36297,"date":"2017-12-13T11:16:19","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T00:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=36297"},"modified":"2017-12-13T11:16:19","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T00:16:19","slug":"the-virtual-meets-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-virtual-meets-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"The virtual meets reality"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For outsiders, even governments, e-diasporas are a new and much-needed channel for communication with migrant groups and their nations of origin. E-diasporas present risks and opportunities for migration management, workforce planning, diplomacy, political engagement and the stability of governments in other countries. Today, ASPI released its latest Special Report,<\/span> The virtual meets reality: policy implications of e-diasporas<\/span><\/i><\/a>, written by Dr Deirdre McKay of Keele University<\/span>. <\/span>The report is a groundbreaking assessment of e-diasporas and their national security policy implications.<\/span><\/p>\n

Diasporas aren\u2019t a new phenomenon\u2014after all, they\u2019re simply global social formations of people who have been scattered from their country of origin, and that\u2019s been occurring since the dawn of humankind. These travellers carry with them a collective representation, myth or imagined sense of their homeland.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until the rise of social media, the connection between a diaspora and its members\u2019 original \u2018home\u2019 was sustained by letters, tapes and print media. For diasporas, social media have been the latest in a series of technologies that have offered possibilities for self-organisation independently of the state. Social networking services have both enabled diasporas to intensify their global connections and assisted new cohorts of people to migrate.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rise of social media has intensified the articulation and elaboration of diasporic identities several-fold. E-diasporas recreate and expand a diaspora\u2019s sense of shared identity and community by providing a virtual venue for affirmation and recognition.<\/span><\/p>\n

E-diasporas emerged as online manifestations of diaspora communities. They enable migrant identities to remain closely tied to places and social groups in their nations of origin. In practical terms, they\u2019ve become networks of connective action, where individuals can personalise their experience and thus the ways they understand their participation in groups, discussions or networks.<\/span><\/p>\n

E-diasporas are dynamic and amorphous online \u2018collectivities\u2019, but they also have their own idiosyncratic culture and etiquette. They produce a set of informal rules for online interactions and recognitions that encompass ideas about sharing content and deferment to cultural or spiritual authority.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over time, e-diasporas can take on a life of their own and begin to reshape the offline communities that produce them. Although they come into being online\u2014shaped by the social networking sites and the technologies that they use\u2014they\u2019re extensions of real-world diasporic communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where resources are sufficient and people have the skills, social media enable e-diasporas to:<\/span><\/p>\n