We Live Here, and We Are Queer!: Young Gay Connected Migrants’ Transnational Ties and Integration in the Netherlands

Jeffrey Patterson,Koen Leurs

doi:10.17645/mac.v7i1.1686

Jeffrey Patterson, Koen Leurs

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i1.1686

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Abstract

Upon arrival to Europe, young migrants are found grappling with new language demands, cultural expectations, values, and beliefs that may differ from global youth culture and their country of origin. This process of coming-of-age while on-the-move is increasingly digitally mediated. Young migrants are “connected migrants”, using smart phones and social media to maintain bonding ties with their home country while establishing new bridging relationships with peers in their country of arrival (Diminescu, 2008). Drawing on the feminist perspective of intersectionality which alerts us socio-cultural categories like age, race, nationality, migration status, gender and sexuality impact upon identification and subordination, we contend it is problematic to homogenize these experiences to all gay young adult migrants. The realities of settlement and integration starkly differ between desired migrants – such as elite expatriates and heterosexuals – and those living on the margins of Europe – forced migrants and lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) migrants. Drawing on 11 in-depth interviews conducted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with gay young adult forced and voluntary migrants, this paper aims to understand how sexual identification in tandem with bonding and bridging social capital diverge and converge between the two groups all while considering the interplay between their online and offline entanglements of their worlds.

Highlights

Issue This article is part of the issue “Communicating on/with Minorities”, edited by Leen d’Haenens and Willem Joris (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Contributing to the emerging interdisciplinary area of digital migration studies (Leurs & Ponzanesi, 2018) the focus of this article is on how gay young adults in the Netherlands negotiate their parallel coming-of-age, coming-out and migration, across online and offline spaces
Drawing on a grounded theory approach to 11 in-depth interviews conducted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands we compared gay young adult forced and voluntary migrants

Summary

Introduction

Issue This article is part of the issue “Communicating on/with Minorities”, edited by Leen d’Haenens and Willem Joris (KU Leuven, Belgium). We seek to answer how everyday online digital practices and offline experiences of young gay forcibly displaced migrants and expatriates (ages 15–25 years) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, have impact upon their bonding and bridging social capital. Formerly unacquainted individuals can meet online and communicate typically through online groups, forums, platforms, and apps organized around common (sexual) identities and interests, including Grindr, Planet Romeo, Scruff, Blued, Line and Gaydar These digital platforms are often publicly or semi-publicly accessible. Online groups and communities can be resourceful places to seek and receive (and sometimes offer) cultural, emotional and social resources, and for some gay migrants, they may help lay the groundwork to receive these particular resources, potentially gaining bridging social capital. In our commitment to social justice research, we seek to offer a more holistic and humane perspective of young adult gay connected migrants by emphasizing situated differences, subjectivities and agency

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