Internet Communication and Translocal Migration: The Case of Dagestan

Abstract

The article examines the mechanisms of functioning of internet communication and social networks in the translocal rural communities of Dagestan, a Russian Federation region in the North Caucasus, whose members have been participating in the labor migration to industrial Russian cities. Huge distances and various sociocultural and economic differences between the sending and the receiving societies pose a challenge to the unity of the rural community, djamaat. Rural identity is salient for migrants: they preserve the principle of rural endogamy, bury all the dead migrants in their village, spend money and time on the development of the village, and create public organizations of fellow villagers. The article focuses on the practice of using mobile social networks—Facebook and its Russian counterparts—by transmigrants, their families, and fellow villagers. Social media provide everyday family communication and serve as a platform for performing important social rites such as finding a bride, matchmaking, remitting money for condolences, as well as transferring important information between migrants and those living in the village. Rural chats consolidate the community and formulate the idea of the unity and also become power and economic resources for migrants. At the same time, the villagers’ chats are the places where the laws of reputation are at work, therefore they can also demonstrate positive or negative social capital and carry a danger for migrants, especially for women. Article in Russian DOI: 10.25285/2078-1938-2020-12-3-26-51