Literacy and capital in immigrant youths' online networks across countries

Abstract

Communication technologies are playing an increasingly prominent role in facilitating immigrants' social networks across countries and the transnational positioning of immigrant youth in their online language and literacy practices. Drawing from a comparative case study of the digital literacy practices of immigrant youth of Chinese descent, this paper examines the cross-border social relationships that are fostered between the youth and their peers in their natal country through the use of instant messaging and other online media. Using Pierre Bourdieu's capital and field theory, and the concept of social capital, this paper considers how literacy development in transnational contexts constitutes the production of social and cultural capital. It argues that the youths' online literacy practices need to be understood within the particular social fields in which they are situated and how they allow the youth to navigate and take up position within social fields that cross national boundaries.

Keywords:

• digital literacy
• migration
• transnationalism
• social capital
• adolescent literacy

Funding

This work was supported by the National Academy of Education postdoctoral fellowship in the USA. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this work are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency.

Notes on contributor

Wan Shun Eva Lam is an Associate Professor at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She studies language development, literacies, and socialization practices in new media environments. Her recent work has focused on how youth of migrant backgrounds engage in multilingual and multimodal learning with digital and transnational media.