Construction of Horizontal Networks on “Migrant” Russian-Language Digital Platforms

Abstract

The article discusses the Russian-language “migrant” groups in the social networking service “Vkontakte.” The author analyses mechanisms of constructing horizontal networks in these groups uniting Russian-speaking immigrants in the Russian Federation, their role in migration planning and solving everyday household, legal and moral problems. The article uses the language of describing mobility by J. Urry: we consider “migrant” digital platforms to be the space in which thematic network “nodes” are created, which allow accumulating the information resources of several horizontal networks needed to solve a particular current problem. The article also formulates a hypothesis about the existence of a “migrant” meta-network consisting of people who are part of migration flows, and who service or exploit them. We assume that the digital platforms under consideration significantly simplify the integration process by being a space that allows the formation of local, “thematic” nodes of the “migrant” meta-network that accumulate a social capital and information