The impact of migration on status within the informal political conversation

Abstract

Migrants' lives are rarely strongly divided between their home and host countries. Instead, their lives orbit between two or sometimes more countries, becoming generators of cross border exchanges with simultaneous loyalties and political participation in several countries. The informal transnational political conversation is a reflection of the overlapping political rights and practices that are forged and maintained through migration. This thesis examines the impact of migration on status within the informal transnational political conversation. It presents findings regarding the effects of migration on political interest and on homogeneity in the characteristics of political conversation partners the importance of perception in political expertise and political ideology as an element in maintaining trustworthiness within the transnational conversation. It is concluded that migration affects not only the political conversation from the point of view of internal dynamics of influence but also impacts the conversation participants themselves , in terms of their characteristics and interests . The thesis also presents a possible avenue for future research.