Plugged in Youth: Technology and Transnationalism among South Asian Diaspora in Scandinavia

This chapter investigates psychosocial consequences of global migration through an empirical study of South Asians to Scandinavian countries and is a follow up of a Danish project conducted in the mid-nineties. Diasporia and transnational processes in interaction with the everyday life’s technological processes combined with life course perspectives, provide the theoretical framework for this study. In-depth interviews were employed and information was analysed through meaning condensation and subsequent categorisation of the narratives. The results show the reinterpretation of the self, “others” and home in these families, for the parental as well as the young generation, in which the technological processes play an increasing part for the youth generation. The chapter also depicts the young adults’ diasporic identities involving the countries of origin as well as the Scandinavian welfare societies. The results hardly support the myth of return, although the country of residence has turned increasingly restrictive in migration policies and xenophobic in the past years.
The chapter purports to delineate dynamics of global dynamics in transnational contexts hardly investigated earlier on an empirical basis. The longitudinal time perspective additionally illustrates the changing aspects of interaction between intra-, inter- personal, and technological processes. Besides there are reflections regarding the future waves of data collection which hopefully contributes to the future trends in the socio-cultural adaptation of the diasporic group.
The study focuses explicitly on the intersections of migration, technology and sociocultural adaptations through a longitudinal perspective. An array of theoretical discussions are also embedded in the long time perspective of the research project thus answering some questions related to both methodology, ethics and basic conceptualizations in this field.