Friends and enemies of Russian emigrants

1. Friends and enemies of Russian emigrants discursive strategies to reinforce social identity 1 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

2. Discursive construction of social identity • Identity implies both a uniqueness and sameness […] one identity cannot be defined in isolation: the only way to circumscribe an identity is by contrasting it with other identities. (Martin, 1995) • collective opposition allows an individual to feel more confident, to feel united with like-minded individuals in fighting a common battle. • communication through the internet has special significance for the socially vulnerable layers of the population (Page, 2012; Khvorostianov, Elias & Nimrod, 2011), which includes migrants (Elias & Lemish, 2009; Mesch, 2012) 2 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

3. Study Material • This study forms part of my postdoctoral research “Storytelling on Web 2.0: the case of migrants' personal blogs”. • Database: http://www.vitartis.com . 85 Personal Journals indexed by now. • Blogs or weblogs are “frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence” (Herring et al., 2004). • Their contents are generally stories about episodes from the author’s life, their thoughts and observations, which can be commented on by other people. The blogger has the ability to control access to their journal. The blog can be fully closed, open to friends, to registered users of the platform or open to all users of the internet. • For our research, it is important to note that the nature of commenting in blogs is more long-term as well as greater in volume than in social networks such as Facebook. News that are published in the latter, as a rule, become ancient history within a few hours or days, whereas the posts in personal journals may sometimes refer to different years and over time may collect hundreds or even thousands of comments. 3 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

4. Methodology • Positioning Theory: Davies and Harré (1990), Bamberg (1997; 2004; 2011) “Positioning, as we will use it is the discursive process whereby selves are located in conversations as observably and subjectively coherent participants in jointly produced story lines. There can be interactive positioning in which what one person says positions another. And there can be reflexive positioning in which one positions oneself.” Davies and Harré (1990) • Argumentation Theory (van Eemeren et al., 1996) Argumentation is “a verbal and social activity of reason aimed at increasing (or decreasing) the acceptability of a controversial standpoint for the listener or reader, by putting forward a constellation of propositions intended to justify (or refute) the standpoint before a rational judge” (van Eemeren et al., 1996, p. 5) 4 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

5. “They’ve overrun the place” - 1 Post #1. Year 2010. Author: Sergei. Male, emigrant for 5 years. 138 comments. A typical representative of My People has found himself in a sweet spot, having escaped the deprivation and unbearable hardships of his homeland. Now he sits under a palm tree and is scared someone might come and take it all away, this tasty morsel that everyone wants for themselves, as My People mistakenly believe. Apparently, this is the same reason that My People freak out if they accidentally meet their compatriots and to the random question of “where are you from?” answer “I’m from Sweden”. 5 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

6. “They’ve overrun the place” - 2 Post #2. Year 2012. Author: Sergei. Male, emigrant for 7 years. 102 comments. It was unusual for me to hear that such frivolities as someone being interested in your origins are only prevalent in rural New Zealand. Like, the small town syndrome, where everyone, like gossiping grannies, knows everything about everyone, and if someone’s out of the loop, they wouldn’t mind being filled in on the latest rumours. 6 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

7. “I have THE SAME experience” - 1 Post #3. Year 2009. Author: Oleg, non-emigrant. 260 comments I-C1 – Oh, mon cherie, got to know Australia a bit? I’m in the same boat: my eight years of [fucking awesome] experience doesn’t interest ANYONE here. And why is that? Because there are plenty of idiots here who are ready to sit for ten years in one spot on the same chair and press the same button. And when I say that I have a crap ton of years of experience… the recruiters think that I have THE SAME experience as the local idiots, which doesn’t count. Wonder-fucking-ful. All in all, if you couldn’t make it in this country then I’m telling you, it’s the country, not you. Get to the States, that’s my advice to you. (M, emigrant for less than 1 year) II-Oleg – I’ve already been to the States, and I understand very well that my experience is worthless in Australia. [...] III-C2 –This is, excuse me, bs. I lived in the States, now live in Australia – these are two different countries. Any experience is valued, if it is correctly presented –I worked as an IT project manager before and I’m doing the same work now. In the states I would just come in off the street, did the same here too. The most important thing is your visa status. […] (M, emigrant for 1 year). IV-C3–It’s like we’re living in different Australias. In my company, and even in the whole industry, someone leaving is perfectly normal. The higher-ups are constantly in the process of trying to lure in people from other companies, while trying to keep their current employees, which they’re doing more or less pretty well. And the recruiters let you know about them at least once a month. That’s how it is here. (M, emigrant for 2 years) V-C3 –“the recruiters think that I have THE SAME experience as the local idiots, which doesn’t count” Instead, I think that the problem is that a fresh off the boat immigrant, with his broken English, can’t properly explain what experience he has. I’ve worked in different countries and, overall, it’s pretty much the same – that’s part of the question of “the country’s just like that”. No, but really, everything’s terrible in Australia, don’t come here at all. 7 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

8. “I have THE SAME experience” - 2 Post #3. Year 2009. Author: Oleg, non-emigrant. VI-C1 – “It’s like we’re living in different Australias” Looks like. “Instead, I think that the problem is that a fresh off the boat immigrant, with his broken English, can’t properly explain what experience he has.” They don’t call even though they have my resume on hand. It was checked by one of our own, he’s lived here three years and finished uni. VII-C3 –Well, doesn’t really matter who checked it, just means that they’ve got their hands full with their own candidates. And the problem isn’t that “they’re recruiting the idiots just so they stay in the company longer” but that the trust is a priori higher towards those who are local-with-local-recommendations than to some nobody. VIII-C1 – “to some nobody” If you weren’t so lazy and checked up on who I was, you would see that it’s fucking somebody instead. That’s exactly what I’m saying, the country’s like that (C) - no one will even lift a finger if it means doing something outside of the usual lazy state of affairs (Emphasis made by the comment’s author-NK) IX-C4 –Some weird approach you have there –to cry that the employer doesn’t try hard enough to look into the awesomeness of every potential employee. (M, emigrant, 7 years in Australia) X-C1 –Yet in other countries they do just that. That’s why I’m unhappy about where I ended up. And I write to the author of the journal, so that he doesn’t beat himself up, it’s the country’s fault. XI-C4 –It’s kind of easy to see that if the employer (or recruiter) will start to thoroughly check all candidates, then very quickly there won’t be any resources left– at the very least from the legions of Indians and Chinese, whose resumes will say that they’re senior assistants to God himself. So here’s the conclusion –you need to explain your own awesomeness yourself directly to the recruiter, or it must contain some kind of famous and relatively huge project. 8 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

9. “Stockholm Syndrome” Post #4. Year 2012. Author: Zinaida. Female, emigrant for 19 years. 67 comments. I have been observing this phenomenon for years, in different countries, and every time it brings me to a standstill. […] the point is that my and your compatriots (I know only about the Russians, but it’s possible that it’s the same for other nations, although that’s doubtful), having moved to another country become hard-core fans of everything in that country, become ‘hurray-patriots’ a hundred times stronger than the local patriots will ever be. 9 9 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

10. Conclusion • The blogger-emigrants of our research care about their inclusion both into the society of their new country and the national majority of their homeland. • The objects of their criticisms become the “other” emigrants, whose negative image helps them to positively represent themselves. • The bloggers themselves describe this opposition in terms of success/failure. The unsuccessful immigrants, in their opinion, show aggression and form unjustifiable criticisms, full of emotions and generalizations. • The positive self-representation in posts, as well the support of like-minded readers in the comments, leads to the strengthening of the social identity of the blogger-emigrants in our research. However, the question of the “reliability” of their identity remains open: they do not feel that they are rightful members of any of the in-groups whose membership they proclaim to hold. 10 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013

11. References • Bamberg, M. (2004). Considering counter narratives. In: M. Bamberg & M. Andrews (Eds.), Considering counter narratives: Narrating, resisting, making sense (pp. 351-371). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. • Bamberg, Michael G. W. (1997). Positioning Between Structure and Performance. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 1-4 (7), 335-342. Bamberg, Michael. (2011). Who am I? Narration and its contribution to self and identity. Theory Psychology, 21(1), 3-24. • Davies, Bronwyn & Harré, Rom. (1990). Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43–63. Elias, N., & Lemish, D. (2009). Spinning the web of identity: the roles of the internet in the lives of immigrant adolescents. New Media Society, 11, 533-551. Khvorostianov, N., Elias, N., & Nimrod, G. (2011). “Without it I am nothing”: The internet in the lives of older immigrants. New Media Society, 11, doi: 10.1177/1461444811421599 Martin, D.-C. (1995). The choices of identity. Social Identities, 1(1), 5-16 Mesh, Gustavo S. (2012). Minority Status and the Use of Computer-Mediated Communication: A Test of the Social Diversification Hypothesis. Communication Research, 39, 317-337. • Page, R. E. (2012). Narratives of Illness and Personal Blogs. In R. Page. Stories and Social Media: Identities and Interaction (pp. 49-65). New York: Routledge. • van Eemeren, Frans H., Grootendorst, Rob, & Snoeck Henkemans, Francisca. (1996). Fundamentals of Argumentation Theory. A Handbook of Historical Backgrounds and Contemporary Developments. Mahwah, New Yersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. 11 Nina Kresova BAAL-CUP/Soton Seminar, 8/07/2013