Technology and Diaspora: Investigating Immigration Issues in Timog Online

This study investigates the reciprocal relations of technology and diaspora through the examination of immigration issues in Timog Online forum. Through the types of messages conveyed by forum users, authors look at how these messages relate to in the cultivation of social capital. Timog Online forum serves as a virtual community among Filipinos in Japan. It provides information, support as well as communication platform to most Filipino migrants. This study, therefore, illustrates how forum users appropriated and utilized computer-mediated communication (CMC) like the Timog Online forum. It is hoped that concerns raised and resolved in the immigration forum can present the value of Internet as a bridge for community formation, engagement as well as the enhancement of Filipino migrants’ social capital.


Introduction
to stay and work in Japan. One is to submit to Japanese authorities and go back to the Philippines then return to Japan after serving the penalty. Two is to get married with Japanese national to declare a spouse visa. The latter is always the best option for most especially for visa-less women who bore child out of wedlock. To avoid deportation, they would ask their Japanese partners to marry them and recognize the child as theirs. This way they could claim the spouse visa. Marriage visas have been a quick and easy way out for most visa-less Filipinos in Japan (Da-anoy 2008; Cameron and Newman 2008).
Overstayers are migrants not able to find better options to stay in Japan but decided to continue residing and escape deportation. In order for overstayers not to be understood and identified by Japanese people, they use the term bilog for themselves and for other Filipinos to distinguish them. Bilog is Filipino term which means circle or round. It denotes the "O" in overstayers.
Timog Online comes into the picture as this functions mainly as an information hub for Filipino migrants in Japan. The dilemma of facing immigration authorities was perfectly mirrored on posts of 'Visa and Legal' forum. This forum with several threads provides social support by furnishing members with pertinent information in the form of advice, suggestion, referral, appraisal and teaching (Cutrona & Suhr 1992).

To Surrender or Not: A Dilemma for the Filipino Bilog
For bilog, the idea of surrendering to authorities is a sticky situation. The fear of detention, penalty fees and possible traumatic jail experience are uncertainties that overstayer confronts. He also does not want to go back to his country because he knows that his future is bleak there. If he goes back home, there is no work for him; if he gets work, he will have a very low salary, so the bilog would rather stay in Japan for economic reasons. Overstayers who are members of Timog Online ask help and advice from their fellow migrants about their situation. The exchanges of messages between migrants about their problems appeared enlightening and informative since responses to queries contained detailed information of facts. A number of discussions on specific laws of immigration and paperwork processing were posted by forum users.
In addition, the immigration forum served as an interactive reference panel for information-seekers. It paved the way for participants to feel cared about, the way a face to face conversation would relieve or ease problems. Internet has made it possible for unfamiliar people bound by a certain commonality, which in this case their national identity to achieve meaningful discourses on immigration policies in Japan thus enhancing social relationships.
Evidently, the message board has furnished Filipino migrants with useful details on how they should sustain their confidence despite the tough US Visa application and remind every forum member to abide to Japan's equally stringent immigration policies. The study revealed that forum users gained better understanding of the immigration policies set by the two big countries. It is interesting to note that both US and Japan implement rigid processing of foreign migrants' documents to ensure the welfare of its constituents.
Remarkable in this study is that the Internet usage is not limited to trade, advertising or simple exchange of how are you's. The power of Internet to connect people across the globe cannot be measured merely by counting the frequency of log-ins in a site or number of participants in an online community. Internet empowers people through the quality of information shared in the online community. Hence, the impact of posts is not tangible but it creates a change that nurtures the social capital. In this study, the information and emotional support that online members shared in the forum enhanced the lifestyle of Filipino migrants in Japan. The participation of these migrants in online communities illustrated that social capital cannot be cultivated solely through exchange of products or services but how information was used by online members to improve their way of living.
The study further proved the importance of Internet as a cost-effective bridge in supporting globally dispersed Filipinos by saving time, money and effort. Thus, Internet is utilized as the most affordable and convenient technological fix of convergence across the globe.
At present, the real number of overstayers, illegal workers or even permanent residents in various diaspora all over the world may not coincide with their population on the Internet but this study presupposed that their growth in the future would not be impossible.
Internet's potential as an agent in building communities online is an emerging phenomenon to think about.

Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies
Volume: 2 -Issue: 2 -April -2012