| dc.description.abstract | Life is a constantly evolving journey. We are a different version of who we used to be. As we gain new insights and perspectives, our identities are shaped by our actions and interactions with other people. Migrants experience this more intensely. They need to negotiate their identities and make new contacts in their new destinations. In this regard, this master’s thesis makes a new contribution to the study of migration and interculturality: considering friendship and social life. In particular, the study draws upon nine Spaniards who migrated to Norway at some time between 2008 and 2018 in the context of the 2008 financial crisis.
This study aims to provide an insight into how they understand friendship, and how they build their social lives concerning their individual goals, happiness and sense of belonging. Through a sixmonth period of fieldwork in the city of Bergen, where I gathered material through interviews, notetaking, and participant observation, I analyse four topics of friendship: how they understand friendship; how their social encounters and identities are placed in space; how they experience loneliness, unfolding the different social challenges they face in Norway; as well as how they socially engage themselves in the digital world.
The analyses of my material demonstrate that friendship is subjected to their individual ideas and their shared context. The diverse ways that they relate to friendship define their understanding of the word, and their selectivity of friends is expressed through their ethno-social preferences. Everyday spatial practices and relationship to place are powerful tools in expressing their identities and shaping their social interactions. The way they inhabit and “make place” is determined by their unique interactions with their expressive culture and by their subsequent social networks. Moreover, building a social life in a new country is limited by many factors such as their different values, beliefs, norms and behaviours. Without a satisfying social life, they feel lonely, and consequently, they keep and make social ties online. As the main conclusion, this master’s thesis argues that an enjoyable social life and a consolidated network of friends create a place for their goals, happiness and belonging. | en_US |
