Peshkova V. (2025) Semeynye gruppovye chaty i pereopredeleniegranits sem'i v migratsii [Family Group Chats and Redefining Family Boundariesin Migration]. Zhurnal issledovanii sotsial’noi politiki [The Journal of Social Policy Studies], 23 (4): 619–640. https: ...

Òåêñò ñòàòüè íà ñàéòå æóðíàëà URL: https://jsps.hse.ru/article/view/30426 (äàòà îáðàùåíèÿ 09.01.2026)

Abstract

This article examines how migrants from Central Asia use messaging applications in their everyday family life. The study is based on the idea that the family is not a fixed structure, but rather a process formed through regular interactions and care practices. The empirical basis comprises 71 interviews with migrant families, including second-­generation representatives. The analysis focuses on how migrants themselves define the family, who they include as family members, the communication methods they use, and how family boundaries change during migration. Particular attention is given to family group chats on messaging applications, examining when and why they emerge, who participates in them, and how communication is organized. Group chats function as one of the mechanisms within a dynamic system of communication practices through which migrants negotiate a balance between temporal and spatial distance, maintaining family ties under the conditions of migration. These chats enable the continuation of familiar communication practices, mutual support, expressions of care, and participation in family life without replacing in-person meetings. They simultaneously sustain family hierarchies and gender expectations, while reflecting digital inequality and intergenerational gaps. They fulfill informational, organizational-­coordination, emotional, and identification functions, through which kinship ties and family life as a whole are maintained in the context of migration. This process also involves the redefinition of family boundaries and the transformation of intra-­family relations. Contemporary migrant families from Central Asia thus appear to be distributed, transnational and simultaneously digital.