PROVISIONES TÉCNICAS

As shown above, the three Facebook groups are online communities where new Italian migrants can gain social support, encouragement, information and advice in order to prepare for and manage the migration process. Nonetheless, comments within threads also showed several instances (130 posts or 4.5%) of flaming, thus

highlighting the dark side to interaction on SNSs which includes cyberbullying, stalking, and online harassment (Fox & Moreland, 2015). Further, there were tensions between members who gave conflicting opinions or advice. It is worth noting that the actual percentage of posts categorised as flaming is likely to be much higher, as many of the posts may have been deleted by the groups’ moderators before they could be coded. Indeed, if the groups were being moderated hourly, some of the more hostile or aggressive posts will have been removed by the administrator before I extracted the

which were contradictory as well as those that appeared hostile in tone, including insulting, mocking or sarcastic comments.

5.2.5.1 Conflicting Information

The fact that original posts could receive an infinite number of unique comment responses meant that the information provided could engender contradictions, as in the following:

1. Ciao a tutti ragazzi:) fra qualche mese saró a Sydney, volevo chiedere voi quando siete partiti avete fatto il biglietto di sola andata o andata e ritorno? Ho sentito che possono far delle storie se fai sola andata 2. … Non serve un biglietto di ritorno

3. Fai andata e ritorno ti conviene poi fai quello che ti pare

4. Ma non fare il ritorno un anno prima ma siete fuori....sai quante cose cambiano in un anno magari fai progetti differenti e a casa ci torni prima o dopo..

5. io dico di prendere il ritorno perché se per qualsiasi motivo devi tornare indietro, con una tantum di 100€ parti il giorno stesso perché L hai già acquistato...

(1. Hello everyone:) in a few months I’ll be in Sydney, I wanted to ask you when you left, did you get a one-way ticket or a return? I heard that they can make a fuss if you get just a one-way ticket

2. ... You don’t need a return ticket

3. Get a return ticket and then do whatever you want

4. No do not get a return ticket a year in advance, are you guys crazy .... do you know how many things can change in a year, maybe you’ll change your plans and you’ll go home earlier or later

5. I think you should get a return ticket because if for any reason you have to go back, with a one-off €100 you can leave the same day because you have already bought the ticket).

The thread above shows four contradictory pieces of advice in response to an original post and is a typical example of how confusion and conflict can arise within these groups. First, the member is told that he does not need to buy a return ticket, then he is advised that he does, then he is told that he definitely should not buy one, and

finally he is told he definitely should buy one just in case. The tension is heightened by the expression “ma siete fuori?” which derives from the expression “essere fuori di testa” (“to be out of your head/mind”). It serves, in this example, to ridicule the members who had previously commented by insinuating that they are ignorant about Australian immigration.

Other instances of conflicting information and advice created further tensions between group members and even issues of distrust, as the following thread elucidates:

1. Ciao a tutti! Probabilmente la domanda è stata posta mille volte ma non riesco a ritrovarla... A gennaio verranno i miei a trovarmi: possono portare con loro del cibo (tipo salame, affettati, parmigiano o altro) o delle bevande (vino)? in che quantità? Grazie mille ragazzi!!!

2. niente di tutto quello (non sono sicuro del vino pero')

3. si possono... devono essere sottovuoto e confezionati con etichetta industriale

4. Scusa ma voi non capite niente. Pensate che qui non ci [sono] salami, vino etc? Perche’ non vi informate al vostro paese?

3. [nome di 4] impara a leggere.. lui [1] ha detto che e' sua mamma che viene.. le mamme quando vengono in visita voglion sempre portare regali.. Se la tua no, non prendertela con lui...

(1. Hello everyone! I’m sure the question has been asked a thousand times but I can’t find it ... In January, my parents will come visit me: can they bring food with them (like salami, ham, cheese etc) or drinks (wine)? in what quantity? Thank you so much guys!!!

2. none of them (not sure about the wine though)

3. yes they can ...but they have to be vacuum-packed and packed with an industrial label ...

4. I'm sorry but you don’t understand anything. Do you know that you can find salami, wine etc here? Why don’t you get better informed in your village? 3. [name of 4] learn to read, he said that his mum is coming .. when mothers are visiting they always want to bring you presents .. If yours doesn’t, don’t blame him .. .

This exchange continued in this aggressive manner until the member who wrote the original post had to ask his question again. At this point, he also realised that he was unsure of whose information to trust, as he explicitly acknowledges: “detto questo, di

chi mi dovrei fidare?” (“that said, who should I trust?”).

Thus, we can see from the above thread that conflicting information can cause members to become frustrated and make inflammatory posts about other members’ ostensible ineptitude (eg. “but don’t you understand anything”). Further, the

comments “get better informed in your village” and “learn to read” insinuate that the other members who posted are village peasants who are ignorant or illiterate. While this is a generic reference to being a “village peasant”, other examples below will more specifically point to the regional divide which still exists between the prosperous, industrialised North of Italy and the poorer, more rural South.

For potential- and pre- migrants, then, on the one hand these online communities are extremely useful because they allow for the spreading of a plethora of practical information and advice about how to prepare for migration to a new country and what to expect once arrived. Yet, on the other hand, as boyd (2014) argues, the ease with which people can share and spread information on social media can also be dangerous (p. 12). As we have seen from the excerpts above, when a large volume of

information is disseminated by hundreds of individuals, confusion and tensions can arise within the groups. This may also be exacerbated by the fact that within these Facebook groups, members come from different regional backgrounds in Italy and will presumably have had different life-experiences.

In the following chapter, we will see that this finding was also confirmed by some of my interview participants who became frustrated, confused and, at times, anxious, because of the large amount of conflicting information and advice circulating within

the groups. In the following section, more examples of in-group tension will be discussed, especially those comments that explicitly insult or harass other members.

5.2.5.2 Insults and Sarcasm

In my corpus, instances of flaming were also apparent in comments which did not provide information or advice in response to the question posed, rather they simply ridiculed the member who posted for asking a seemingly obvious question. Others ridiculed members because of their regional background. Indeed, as mentioned above, a pervasive North-South regional divide still exists in Italy. Southern Italians, for instance, are often stigmatised as being less educated and therefore inferior to

Northern Italians. In addition, there are still negative attitudes towards certain Italian dialects23_{, primarily Southern Italian dialects, which are perceived as languages of}

lower status and prestige (Rubino, 2014). These issues are illustrated in the following threads:

1. Ciao ragazzi, una domanda.. ma il curriculum deve essere necessariamente in formato australiano o no?

2. Ma no mica sei in Australia....

3. Puoi anche lasciarlo nel dialetto della tua regione.. Nn per forza in inglese 4. Ahahahhhahahahhahaha

5. Ma che cazzo xó! Dai.... sei in australia, mica in canada.. 6. Ma tu buona sei?

(1. Hey guys, a question.. do résumés necessarily have to be written in the Australian format or not

2. But no of course not it’s not like you are in Australia ....

3. You can also write it in the dialect of your region .. Not necessarily in English

4. Ahahahhhahahahhahaha

5. What the fuck! Come on .... you are in Australia, not in Canada... 6. Are you alright in the head? )

The thread above shows several types of hostile comments: sarcasm (“But no of course not it’s not like you are in Australia ...” and “You can also write it in the dialect of your region .. Not necessarily in English”); profanity (“What the fuck!”); and finally an insult about the member’s intellect (“Are you alright in the head?”). Here we also see linguistic discrimination based on the treatment of a group member as a “provincial” person because of regional dialect differences (“You can also write it in the dialect of your region”).

In another example, a female member of one of the groups wrote an original post in which she indicated that she is from the city of Milan and could not find a job there. She stated that she hoped to come to Australia to look for work. Her post was met with derogatory comments about her background. One member writes, “Milanese?!! Torna a casa!!! O almeno se proprio vieni levati la puzza sotto al naso.”

(“Milanese?!! Go back home!!! Or if you do come, at least act less snobby”).

After a series of antagonistic exchanges, the group administrator intervened and told the group that comments which insult other members will not be tolerated. The Milanese woman eventually responds by saying “a quanto pare qui perdo solo tempo” (“it appears that here I’m just wasting my time”). The above comments again highlight Italy’s regional divide. Indeed, reflecting the widely spread stereotypes of Northern Italians, the Milanese woman is treated (probably by Southern Italians) as snobbish and not in need of a job. Other original posts asking questions that appeared “obvious” to other members were met with comments of laughter (“hahahahaaha”),

female member’s original post asking where to have her passport photo taken, a male member replies: “Stupiditá femminile infinita :)” (“Infinite female stupidity :)”). The instances of flaming that I observed on the Facebook groups may actually be interpreted as a negative consequence of the heightened self-disclosure and sense of community that keep these groups going. As discussed, flaming can be attributed to what is known as the online disinhibition effect (see Suler’s notions of benign

disinhibition and toxic disinhibition in section 3.3.3). Moreover, although Facebook is not an anonymous site, one is still behind a screen, which can remove those

inhibitions that would normally be present in face-to-face interactions (Turkle, 2012).

According to Hopkinson (2013),

One of the defining aspects of online interaction, compared to F2F [face-to- face] interaction, is the physical remoteness of communication. Participants are not in physical proximity; they do not see each other during the interaction. This factor plays an important role in conditioning the tenor of the discourse. The physical distance between participants may potentially have a

dehumanizing effect… This in turn may lead to a heightened intensity of antagonism, as some participants feel licensed to behave towards [others] with a degree of aggression that they would generally avoid in face-to-face

interaction (p. 6).

In my corpus, it would appear that the instances of aggression (or the toxic

disinhibition effect) predominantly surface through posts made by those Italians who believe they are more experienced migrants, that is, they believe they are more knowledgeable about Australia because they have been there longer, such as post- or even return-migrants. This is also confirmed in the data from the in-depth interviews as some of my participants indicated that those Italians who are already in Australia or have visited Australia in the past, construct an identity for themselves as “expert

members within the groups. In other cases, the instances of aggression derive from larger issues within Italian society, such as Italy’s unique regional divide.

The above findings are troubling because the tensions between group members and the conflicting information within threads may adversely affect those Italians who are seeking information, advice and support, and impact on the types of expectations they form pre-migration and the experiences they have post-migration. In this sense, although these groups can produce a sense of virtual community (Koh & Kim, 2003), certain negative or anti-social behaviours, such as flaming, can also develop in this context and present a paradox to Mitra’s (2006) notion that online communities provide a safe space where migrants will not be judged. This finding is confirmed by data from the in-depth interviews, discussed in Chapter Six, where the majority of my participants expressed feelings of ambivalence towards the groups because of the presence of anti-social behaviour. As the analysis of the interviews will reveal, this particular issue created disharmony and tension within the groups, with participants characterising other group members as aggressive or rude, and, at times,

unsupportive.

5.2.6 Concluding remarks

The findings presented in this section have demonstrated that being a member of Facebook groups for new Italian migrants in Australia can influence pre-migration expectations and post-migration experiences by providing a (generally) supportive space for preparing for and managing migration. The sense of virtual community (Koh & Kim, 2003) derived from elements such as the provision of social support,

turn, trust in other group members’ information, advice and opinions. This trust makes the members more inclined to be influenced by one another, enabling them to use these pieces of information and advice, or opinions, to prepare for what to expect in Australia, decide whether or not to migrate, and to manage their lives there once arrived. Italian migrants in the current study also use these groups, as discussed above, as an anchoring point of reference post-migration, that is, a virtual home away from home whereby various aspects of their culture and life in Italy can be expressed and rehearsed.

Yet, the environment of trust created within Facebook groups for new Italian migrants may be simultaneously complicated by the instances of anti-social behaviour and conflicting information. The oppositions of in-group harmony versus in-group disharmony and information versus misinformation are indicative of an underlying complex relationship that the new Italian migrants have with these Facebook groups. This will be elucidated in the following chapter where the majority of my interview participants were, to varying degrees, ambivalent about using Facebook groups because of the presence of in-group tensions.

The next sections will highlight how pre-migrant expectations and post-migration experiences are also influenced by the way in which Australia is imagined collectively within the Facebook groups.

5.3 Images of Australia: imagining and re-imagining Australia through