Building a second home: how the pakistani community in Barcelona uses media to foster connection and belonging

Abstract

This study examines how Pakistani migrants in Barcelona create a sense of belonging through everyday media practices, addressing research gaps in Southern European migration. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Brah, Georgiou, and Anderson, and supplemented by interviews from ten participants, the study reveals that Pakistani migrants participate in strategic selective engagement, preserving homeland ties via Urdu media and WhatsApp family groups and simultaneously integrating into Spanish digital environments. Results show that the length of settlement increases rather than decreases transnational citizenship. The study reveals mostly individualized rather than communal digital habits, thereby promoting local integration and personal identity negotiation. The study reveals a unique "Mediterranean model" of integration marked by pragmatic tolerance and extends theories of mediated transnationalism and imagined communities to digital diaspora contexts, therefore contributing to communication studies and overall migration and diaspora studies.