Digital technologies, body and family structure: Keys to approach migrant adolescents and young people in Bizkaia

Abstract

In this work I offer a brief overview of my doctoral thesis research, which is aimed at was to study the life and social practices of migrant adolescents from their own perspectives and experiences. With this goal in mind, we used a general ethnographic methodology and, in particular, a series of workshops built around different artistic techniques, in which we invited five migrant minors living in a Residential Centre in the province of Bizkaia to be active and committed participants from the very start in the processes of generating material from which to analyse their daily routines and the activities through which they expressed themselves. This methodological strategy allowed us to take a holistic approach to the study of the phenomenon of these adolescents’. The analytical perspective of this research therefore understands information technology, the physical body and family structure as key elements and sources of social capital, through whose interrelations we can observe the daily lives and social interactions of these minors. Thus, we will see how these migrant adolescents are connected with their families and transnational communities, along with the constant exchanges they engage in to integrate their migration and mobility.