Social networks of young Serbian migrants living in Malmö

Sammanfattning: The general aim of the research is to explore the formation, maintenance, and use of social networks or social capital, which young migrants of Serbian origin living in Malmö have at their disposal. The research is circumscribed to second-generation Serbian immigrants (i.e. ‘young migrants of Serbian origin’) in Malmö, who were born or have lived here since childhood, with both parents of Serbian origin (first generation (im)migrants), and who have obtained a university education or are on working their way towards achieving one. Malmö is considered to be a city with a significant number of Serbian migrants and with its very strong co-native community which is what makes this study interesting. The study is qualitative and it represents migrants’ perspectives gained through eight semi-structured, in-depth interviews where the sampling was based on the snowball technique, which seemed most useful. Research questions are focused on how second-generation migrants of Serbian origin in Malmö create and portray their social networks at local and transnational levels and how they use them, how they maintain them, and what significance and meaning they have to them. Theories mostly related with these subjects are Bourdieu’s Social capital theory, Migration network theory, and Transnational network theory, which also represent the theoretical grounds of this study. Results of the study show that all the participants maintain better or closer connections in Malmö with people of their or Balkan origin since they share common experiences. The contacts that they have are mostly formed through co-native associations, school, work, and neighborhoods. Further, the findings showed that most of the respondents did use their own or even their parents’ social capital for various matters in life. Additionally, findings and the analysis demonstrated that maintaining transnational relationships is meaningful for the young migrants of Serbian origin and that they mostly maintain those relationships through travel or via the Internet. Keywords: social networks, social capital, transnationalism, young migrants, Serbian origin, qualitative study.