The Images of the Nation in Migrant Social Media: А Comparative Analysis of VKontakte Groups from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study that is part of a broader project aimed at analyzing online activities of migrants to Russia from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. This research lies at the intersection of migration studies and nationalism studies. The authors seek to characterize the images of the nation and related discussions in online groups on migration topics. The focus of empirical analysis is five VKontakte groups discussing various news and stories about the country of origin, including news on migration to Russia. The methods are online observation supplemented by discourse analysis of posts and comments. The authors aim to answer the following questions: How do the participants construct the images of the nation? What is debatable and what is in consensus? How are the images of the nation and Islam related? How is migration to Russia characterized? Basing on empirical analysis, the authors characterize three images of the nation: “modernizing state” (Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan), “Muslim nation, but not Islamic state” (Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), “nation united by common enemies” (Azerbaijan). For the first one, the main sources of tension are class divisions and vectors of nation’s development. For the second one, Islam is considered as an important part of the national culture, and there are discussions, which type of identity, national or religious, is more significant. The third image is characterized by internal divisions which lose their importance in the face of the external enemy. In conclusion the authors discuss implications of research results for understanding migration processes in the post-Soviet space, including radicalization of migrants.