The activity of adolescent migrant women in the digital environment: access, use and visibility

Abstract

Internet occupies an important place in everyday life, so it is necessary to analyze how the public uses it such digital environment. Our goal is to approach that knowledge from the perspective of gender. We focus on migrant women, taking in account that gender discrimination adds to racial discrimination, and on adolescent life stage, which is marked by the need to consolidate an identity. This article presents some of the results obtained from the project “Migrant Youths’ Online Social Relationships from the Perspective of Interculturality” (CSO2011-24376). The study sample comprised 72 young migrants (aged 12-17 years) living in three provinces of Spain (Vizcaya, Madrid and Barcelona). Semistructured questionnaires, focus groups and ad hoc workshop were conducted. Regarding the behavior in the digital environment, although gender stereotypes appear, borders seem to start to fade. However, if we observe perceived behavior, highlight heterodesignation's processes.