The Mobile Social Network Ecology: Migrant Voices,Organizational Perspectives,and Unveiling Public Mobility in Qualitative Social Network Analysis

Visual Social Network Mapping and Qualitative Interviews

All data collection with both types of participants occurred between November 2022 and January 2023. The interviews and the accompanying mapping exercise occurred over the course of one sitting, sometimes face-to-face and sometimes virtually. Interviews began with general questions including demographic information. Next, participants were led through a visual mapping exercise that involved identifying, labeling, and connecting relevant actors (people and organizations) who are important in their life (see Iannacone, 2024). This was followed by another, more in-depth round of interview questions.

Visual network mapping is a graphic elicitation technique using participants’ drawing to understand complex concepts and experiences (Copeland & Agosto, 2012). I focused specifically on the traditional use of mapping as a means of eliciting visual participant-generated data on social networks in qualitative SNA research. Participants were given concentric sociograms with overlaid quadrants. For migrant participants, “self” was in the center circle, and the quadrants reflected transnationalism and the inclusion of both people and organizations in a social network. As such, quadrants were divided into sides representing country of birth and country of (current) residence, as well as representing people and organizations (see Figure 1). In doing so, this part of data collection spoke to RQ1 and RQ2 in allowing migrant participants to display their perceptions of their social network broadly but also with explicit consideration of CSOs. It is relevant to note that these boundaries may still overlook important actors in the social life of transnational migrants, namely those who are located in neither the country of birth or the country of residence; follow-up research questions aimed to address this limitation and asked who is not included. For CSO participants, the center circle was labeled “the organization” instead of “self.” In addition, quadrants were divided in terms of the level of operation of distinct actors, namely, local, regional, national, or global/international (see Figure 2).

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Figure 1.

Example Anonymized Map From a Migrant Participant.

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Figure 2.

Example Anonymized Map From a CSO Representative Participant

Upon receiving a blank visual network map and following the suggestion of Dobbie et al. (2018, p. 210), Afghan migrant participants were asked to “please think about the important people and organizations in your life.” CSO participants were similarly asked to “please think about the important people and organizations for the migrant advocacy/assistance organization.” Both groups were then instructed to “place them on the map where you think they best fit” according to both the rings of the concentric circle and the quadrants. Participants are instructed to position the actors they felt were most important closer to the center circle; people they felt less close to or felt were less important were placed farther away from the center circle, thereby representing relational closeness (Dobbie et al., 2018). The quadrants further helped to categorize the relationship (Hersberger, 2003). Listing relevant social actors also illustrated the relationship diversity, or the heterogeneity/homogeneity, of participants’ social networks. Following the marking of the map with social connections, participants are also instructed to draw lines between the actors on the map who are connected to each other; this adds another layer of visualizing the connectivity as well as density of an individual network (Hersberger, 2003). It illustrated network positioning, including cases of structural holes and/or brokerage. Both migrant and CSO participants were instructed to connect the actors on their individual maps by drawing lines.

Distinctly, only migrant participants were instructed to color-code their visual social network maps as a means of representing different types of relationships (Dobbie et al., 2018). I used the following color/symbol scheme:

Color-coding helped to uncover relationship quality by specifically marking whether some (if any) relationships have been impacted by or have impacted the transnational mobility of the participant.

A visual map is itself a form of data for cross-comparison, but the mapping process is also a complementary form of data collection that crystallizes other types of often non-visual data like interviews (Copeland & Agosto, 2012; Hollstein, 2011; Wheeldon & Ahlberg, 2019; Wheeldon & Faubert, 2009). It is often integrated into the interview process as a means to invite deeper reflection and to provide content; maps may suffer from decontextuality if used in isolation (Copeland & Agosto, 2012; Dobbie et al., 2018). As such, after completing the visual mapping exercise, both types of participants were asked a further set of questions about the process of mapping their social network and the resulting visual. In particular, short, open-ended questions that emphasize describing the process and product of the visual network map helped to ensure a detailed account of their perceptions of their social network (Dobbie et al., 2018). Follow-up interview questions also afford space for any inconsistencies and/or limitations. For example, CSO participants were asked how the various relationships in the social network of the organization are impacted by the migrant publics they seek to serve, if at all, alongside other questions pertaining to RQ4.

Ethnographic Techniques

I used three ethnographic techniques (c.f., Atwell Seate et al., 2022; Madden & Levenshus, 2021): observation through witnessing, ethnographic interviews, and textual analysis. First, I conducted ethnographic witnessing at various organizational sites, including CSO warehouses, offices, and field sites. More specifically, I conducted approximately 21 hours (1,242 minutes) of ethnographic witnessing at two distinct organizations (Resettlement Aid NPO 1 and Resettlement Aid NPO 2) in the mid-Atlantic region from September 2022 to January 2023. This time frame and commitment allowed me the chance to partake in a variety of their main responsibilities and embed myself in the relational network I was examining, wherein I was able to generate distinct insights and themes. On site, I engaged in the daily tasks of the organization, acting as another set of hands—similar to a volunteer. I took field notes before, during, and after my times on site, using electronic devices. Occasionally, I recorded myself on my personal iPhone to speed up the note-taking and ensure that all important information was recorded, resulting in both audio recordings and speech-to-text notes; speech-to-text notes were later edited for clarity (i.e., spelling and grammar). In total, ethnographic witnessing resulted in the creation of 18 pages of notes (single spaced). Table 4 better depicts the breakdown of hours spent on site, as well as details to the other individuals on site and corresponding ethnographic memos.

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Table 4.

Details to Ethnographic On-Site Data Collection.

Activity	Time	Location	CSO reps. present	Migrant public reps. present	Pages of ethnographic memos
Volunteer Orientation: A training with leaders of the organization to understand the purpose of the organization, how volunteers are utilized, and how they are connected with members of refugee communities to assist with resettlement.	72 minutes	Online—Zoom	3 Organization leaders 15 Volunteers	N/A	3 Pages single spaced
Donation Drop-Off: A full-day commitment to picking up furniture and household goods at the organization’s warehouse to then bring to the apartments of recently resettled refugees. Refugee families were also on site, and it served as a great opportunity for volunteers and migrants to meet and interact. Typically, drop-offs included stops at more than one location.	360 minutes	Organization warehouse and apartment complexes in the mid-Atlantic region	10 Total with 2 organization leaders and approx. 8 volunteers	11 Family members/clients of the CSO	5 Pages single spaced
Home Setup Days: Setting up furniture and household goods at the apartments of incoming refugee families, including unloading the moving van(s) and carrying all material goods into the home space (typically an apartment complex). Groups had (a) a team leader who has undergone further organizational training and participated in multiple home setup days and (b) a variety of new and experienced volunteers, sometimes coming as groups from other institutions (i.e. churches).	510 minutes	Apartment complexes in the mid-Atlantic region	40 Total across different on-site days. 3 Consistent organization leaders and approx. 37 volunteers	10 Family members/clients of CSO across different on-site days	6 Pages single spaced
Shopping Day: Intended for newly arrived refugee families, this event provided migrants with access to an assortment of donated items including clothing, kitchen utensils, baby supplies, etc. It was a co-hosted event between four local CSOs in the mid-Atlantic region and also had support from corporate organizations. For this event, I assisted in setting up/taking down the space and managing a food table and check-in area.	300 minutes	Parking garage of a cultural site in the mid-Atlantic region	Approx. 35 different CSO reps. Including employees and volunteers	100+ Members of migrant community/clients of CSOs	4 Pages single spaced

Furthermore, I was approved to conduct brief informal on-site interviews, to clarify or verify observations as needed and to develop fuller explanations of what occurred (Atwell Seate et al., 2022). While on site, I would introduce myself as a researcher before talking with other members present in the field. I aimed to converse with as many of the other members as possible. I summarized these conversations in my notes but excluded identifying information. Frequently these conversations were shorter or more succinct due to the physical demands of being on-site—it can be hard to focus on conversation when you are carrying a couch upstairs.

In addition, I collected texts in the form of emails sent through the Resettlement Aid NPO 1 organization listserv because emails served as the primary means of communicating with volunteer and donor publics. More specifically, I collected 100 emails from September 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023. Table 5 showcases the six categories of email types that appeared across the collected email data. For each type of email, I chose one representative email to include for further, more in-depth analysis.

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Table 5.

Details to Ethnographic Email Data Collection.

Email type	Description of category	Percentage of data set
Call-to-Action: Volunteers	These emails called for volunteers to sign up for upcoming service opportunities including Donation Drop Offs, Home Setups, and special events. These were typically circulated on a weekly basis.	46%
Call-to-Action: AdHoc	These emails called for people to take action on behalf of the organization, including donating money, voting for the organization in awards, and applying for open positions	20%
Updates	These emails detailed the recent work of the organization, including how many apartments were set up or items donated. They frequently included photos, gave shout-outs to specific volunteer groups, and offered personal reflection from organizational leaders	20%
Call-to-Action: Household Items	These emails called for people to donate specific household items that the organization was running low on and often included links to deals on sites like Amazon	6%
Events	These emails announced organizational events for people to attend	6%
Organization Survey	These emails included calls for volunteers to take an organizational survey about their experiences and a circulation of results.	2%

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Table 6.

The Four Premises of the Mobile Social Network Ecology.

Premise 1 Social networks reflect the varied communicative interactions between social actors, including individuals, groups (i.e. publics and stakeholders), organizations, governments, and nations. Social network analysis is an inherently ecological examination of the connections and their implications on the actors themselves and society at large (Yang & Taylor, 2015).

Premise 2 Movement is inherent to social networks, actors, and interactions. Networks are dynamic, always shifting in relation to the contexts in which they are enacted. Social actors not only re/act in relation to events, encounters, and affects but also physically move through time and space, creating a salient context in which communicative ties are impacted

Premise 3 Interactions and relationships within networks are both manifestations of and themselves manifest temporal, historical, and lived contexts (Edbauer, 2005) as well as contexts of public mobility.

Premise 4 By recognizing the contextual and fluid dynamics of social networks in the modern era, we must simultaneously acknowledge their potential for transnationalism. Social network connections exist, operate, die, and ultimately transform both because of and despite institutionalized borders, including but not limited to geopolitical boundaries.

Textual Data Analysis

I used a reflexive thematic analysis approach to the interview transcripts and ethnographic observation documents (memos and organizational emails). Reflexive thematic analysis (TA) is an approach to data analysis that highlights the process of identifying patterns in data, and then interpreting them in relation to theory (Braun & Clarke, 2020). It captures both semantic and latent meanings in a process of theme development that accounts for its theoretically flexible nature as an analytic process (Braun & Clarke, 2020). Reflexive TA relies on the interpretive work of the researcher and their reflexivity surrounding their own assumptions alongside any data and theories (Braun & Clarke, 2020, 2021). Researchers approach data through their own social, cultural, disciplinary, ideological, and political positionings (Braun & Clarke, 2021). The overall process thereby requires an immersion into one’s own identities as well as the close reading, re-reading, questioning, and reflecting of the data (Bowen, 2009; Braun & Clarke, 2021).

The unstructured, organic nature of open coding allows for evolution of codes to capture the researcher’s expanding understanding of the data (Braun & Clarke, 2020; Lindlof & Taylor, 2019). For this research, textual data including interview transcripts, ethnographic observations, and various organizational documents were all uploaded to NVivo, a computer software program that provides digital tools to assist with the organization and analysis of qualitative data. Inputting data into NVivo creates a study database, but, as a program, NVivo does not generate its own codes or outputs. The researcher still conducts and completes the coding and analysis. Each document was coded independently prior to the development of themes, which involved comparing codes across cases.

After each document of textual data was coded independently, themes were generated in relation to the distinct research questions and the theoretical lenses of SNA and mobility. Themes are the multi-faceted, more complex crystals reflecting multiple observations or dimensions to the data (Braun & Clarke, 2021). More specifically, codes from interview transcripts with migrant participants were compared to develop themes for RQ1 and RQ2, which explore the migrant perspective of social networks as an example of a mobile public. For example, codes like “safety,” “the Taliban,” and “digital channels” led to the theme of “Disruption to Cross-Border Interpersonal Ties.” Similarly, codes from interview transcripts with CSO representatives were compared to generate themes for RQ3 and RQ4, which examine the organizational perspective on having mobile publics within a social network. For example, codes like “localized,” “global actors,” and “collaboration” led to the theme of “Dichotomy of Glocal: Relationship Diversity among Hyper-Local Networks surrounding Global Issue.” Ethnographic memos and organizational documents were also coded independently and then compared with the relevant transcripts for all research questions.

Visual Data Analysis

The visual network maps created by participants were their own form of data and required a unique form of analysis, as outlined in the article by Iannacone (2024). The visual characteristics and topical dimensions of the network are thick, rich data within themselves (Decuypere, 2020). The visual maps produced by the participants of this project illustrated patterns for concepts like relationship strength (through the use of concentric circles representing “closeness”), relationship heterogeneity or homogeneity, and network positioning, including identification of structural holes and brokerage. As such, the visual maps produced by migrant participants helped uncover important details for RQ1 and RQ2, whereas the visual maps produced by CSO participants expressed salient information for RQ3. Two approaches were taken to analyze visual social network maps.

First, in analyzing maps-as-process, I referred to maps while coding distinct individual interview transcripts to understand their mutual corroboration (Iannacone, 2024). For example, many CSO representatives verbally highlighted the prominence of local connections (codes like “local actors” and “localized”) that were simultaneously visible on the distinct maps. Second, in analyzing maps-as-product, I analyzed maps independent of textual data according to the dimensions Decuypere (2020) suggests: regions, centers, density, interfaces, and infrastructure. All these help to highlight unique visual patterns (Iannacone, 2024). For example, analyzing and comparing each CSO representative map for density (i.e., the interconnectedness of nodes, Decuypere, 2020), further confirmed the existence of structural holes at the non-local levels, reaffirming the significance of localization. On the other hand, the analysis of the network infrastructure (i.e., the different types of nodes, Decuypere, 2020) of migrant participants’ maps highlighted the lack of relationship heterogeneity and subsequently the prominence of CSO representatives as network centers. CSO representatives frequently had the most ties and were color-coded as helpful actors. This particular scenario helped with themes for RQ1 and RQ2 in depicting the characteristics of migrant networks and the role of CSOs. The social network maps ultimately served as another salient form of data to assist in the generation of themes and were equally subject to the principles of reflexive TA, including the development of shared meaning according to my interpretation, analysis, and subjectivity.

Isolation in the Generation of New Ties in the Country of Residency

Migrants perceived their social networks as stagnating in the new country of residency: They feel a sense of isolation given their inability to foster ties in the United States. Visually, the social network maps from migrant participants had fewer actors and ties; even the process was more stunted. Participants were often prompted about certain categories of actors (e.g., neighbors) before that actor was included and/or discussed, as opposed to being recalled naturally as important. This generally resulted in more actors in the “country-of-birth” half of the map rather than the “country-of-residency” half of the map, suggesting it was a case of remembering past times rather than reflecting on current dynamics. Asmar captured this sentiment:

One thing in Afghanistan, the majority of people are very social. They are used to gatherings, used to having parties, going to one another’s house, and all those things. Here in the U.S., life is very different. People are not very social. . . . I see people have less interaction and they are very isolated.

Mobility, especially between nations, can lead to comparisons regarding the quality of people’s social networks, and this case emphasized a stagnation in which a perceived lack of actors highlights a lack of interactions. Participants stated that they did not have many if any connections across their network in the United States both interpersonally and with potentially significant organizations.

Many participants asserted being equally isolated from organizations, especially those that may provide employment. Hasan explained: “Actually I don’t know anyone right now. . . . I don’t know any other organizations. . . . Back in Afghanistan, we had a busy life . . . [but] we’re just stuck here in our house.” The issue is compounded regarding their opportunities for employment, one of the largest challenges for this community. While I conducted observations on site at a CSO volunteer orientation, a training facilitator explained the scale of the employment issue: “there has ended up with 70,000 people vying for a few jobs in this area, and people will instead need to shift to other fields” (1.4 Ethnographic Memo). Whether staying in their original work or shifting careers, participants do not feel that they have professional connections within their network. Although still young, in speaking of his future, Yassir expressed: “I wish . . . there was an organization or someone that’s really helped me with my career because I know it’s hard for me to start now.” Migrant participants perceived themselves as isolated from the employers who would hire them, the connections who would help them get a foot in the door, or even those who would help them once they were employed.

Disruption to Existing Ties in the Country of Birth

Many of the migrant participants witnessed disruptions—drastic changes or interruptions—to their social networks, especially in terms of maintaining their transnational ties. In particular, their connections to people and organizations in their country of origin were largely disrupted because of both mobility as an action (i.e., movement) and mobility as a context (i.e., the reason for and dynamics of mobility).

Interpersonal Ties as a Marker for Organizational Relationships

When discussing their connections with CSOs, migrant participants largely referred to specific interpersonal relationships with representatives of these organizations, especially those organizational members deemed closest to them, such as family mentors. Many migrant-serving CSOs utilize a mentor-partner program in which a U.S. citizen volunteer is paired with a migrant family; the volunteer assists the family members with life in the United States, including by helping them to obtain resources, sharing information, and being a point-of-contact for questions and concerns. These relationships were extremely significant, visually situated in the 1st or 2nd innermost ring of the “people—country of residence” quadrant with green color coding. Participants frequently expressed this when I asked specifically whether they felt close to any of the organizations in the United States and whether any had been helpful. Yassir mentioned his family mentor, Elena, and her friends:

These five guys, they really help us. When we first came, we were in a hotel. The organization that was connected with them, they were supposed to help us, but it took a long time to find us a home or house. [Elena] really helped us with that and they find us at home and whenever we want to go somewhere, they really help us.

Although Yassir noted that Elena and her friends are connected to a resettlement agency, he emphasized the significance of Elena herself and her ties with the family. To him, it was not about the relationship with the organization, but the CSO member who represented it. In this sentiment, he was not alone. Hasan similarly voiced the significance of family mentors:

My two family mentors—they’re very important to me. For me, they’re part of my family . . . They help me a lot. Believe me, they helped me a lot. Since I was in Qatar, they collected everything for us . . . everything [that] we need at the moment, like dishes, beds, clothes for my wife, clothes for my baby, for me. They’re helping us a lot. I love them too much.

Many of the Afghan migrants interviewed saw family mentors as providers of material goods, companionship, and problem-solving, ultimately serving as an important actor to help with a variety of concerns. In fact, when it came to problem-solving, new residents in the U.S. thought of family mentors as more significant than other more familiar community members. These interpersonal ties represented positive interactions with the organization because of their ability to leverage its network of resources. Overall, when prompted about connections to important organizations, migrant participants highlighted the role of specific CSO representatives and how these interpersonal ties were significant, particularly in whether/how they connected them to various aspects of U.S. society (i.e., resources, information, places, and employment opportunities).

Perceived Expectations Over the Course of CSO Involvement

Given the excess of CSO service roles and responsibilities, migrants perceive these organization as having boundless connections that can and should be optimized to assist the migrants with joining American life. They are expected to vouch for migrants in housing situations as co-signers to leases, to oversee the process of getting public benefits to migrants, and to connect migrants with monetary and material resources that ease their financial situation. As Saed expressed:

What the resettlement agencies do, they have their own relationship with the rental communities for their refugees and they rent the house for the refugees. . . . They have connections with different donations. . . . This impact means I was, at least for a year, not paying out-of-pocket to buy some stuff. It impacted me a lot financially.

Saed had experienced firsthand the help offered by migrant-serving CSOs and spoke of those initial services with praise, underlining how these organizations have important connections for migrants. These high expectations also applied to the employment sector, an especially challenging area for new migrants to the United States; many expect CSOs to have ties that can be pulled on to help them find jobs. As Asmar noted, “I’m not sure how they do [it], but they are connected to different job markets. . . . They are widely connected . . . and they refer employees to them.” The emphasis is, again, on the organizations having beneficial relationships within their own network that migrants can turn to. While migrants praised CSOs for optimizing these ties, they also were disappointed once they realized the CSO networking limitations and the (short) time that new migrants have access to these connections.

The high expectations for CSO services can generate equally high disappointment when those expectations go unmet. Many key resettlement agency services (e.g., one-time payment per refugee to assist with early expenses and other time-limited cash and medical assistance services) end after an initial 3-month period of resettlement in the United States (Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, n.d.; Office of Refugee Resettlement [ORR], 2023). After that, many migrants instead must turn to other nonprofit organizations, which are often limited in what they can provide due to a lack of funding. This shift in what is provided and by whom is often surprising to migrants. Having worked in a couple of roles with a resettlement agency, Asmar mentioned this service gap:

They’re not serving the clients as they were expected—that is always a complaint from the clients. . . . It is very challenging after three months because the other [organizations] that we refer clients to, they are not simply giving rent. They do their best to find [clients] a job, and they have to be able to get to work and make some money. . . . For most clients, it’s against their expectations.

Having only 3 months of access to some of the resources and connections that resettlement agencies as a CSO can provide is a point of contention for many in the migrant community. Further services also end after 1 year (Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, n.d.; ORR, 2023). The expectation of support services and connections is perceived as unmet due to what comes across as random time limitations, creating a needs gap that impacts the relationship between organization and migrant. This disappointment is only furthered by other perceived slights of CSOs as they attempt to manage remaining needs across the process of resettlement in the U.S. Migrant participants who had been in the United States at least a year described resettlement agencies as “going through the motions.” Working with nonprofits did not close this gap as they too were perceived as slow and inefficient. Overall, the perception of a welcoming into U.S. society by CSOs fades after that initial 3-month period for integral services: migrants find themselves relying on less-efficient connections, with access to fewer resources, and pushed to be self-sufficient. The expectations of boundless connections from CSOs goes unmet. As such, migrants express disappointment in their involvement with CSOs.

Dichotomy of Service: Organized for Yet Reliant on Others

By examining the social networks of CSOs aimed at supporting migrant publics, this project uncovered a dichotomy of service. Participants perceived networks as operating for some while relying others, and the presence of and interactions with these actors largely defined the network. Significantly, these findings show that publics play a complicated role as actors in CSO networks, both in their reception of services and their links to others through inter-public relationships. Yet, this does not discredit the importance of other organizational actors. As such, these networks seemingly depict a dichotomy in which CSOs are organized for migrant publics and are simultaneously reliant on others (interorganizational relationships).

Although the CSO representatives used distinct terminologies (i.e., migrant families, residents, farmworkers, or children), the meaning is the same: the primary actors of importance in the organizational network are the distinct migrant publics. This significance was visually represented across the mapping exercise; the majority of the social network maps have the migrant publics placed within the first or second ring of importance. Interestingly, participants representing resettlement agencies (VOLAG) did not map migrants on the organization’s social network despite referencing them throughout interviews. This visual absence suggests that migrants are inherently a part of this social network, as the reason for and receiver of the organizations’ operations, but are also marginalized members who cannot and/or should not be relied on as contributing members of the network due to their limited resources and capital. Regardless, migrants—in their varied contexts—were described and/or visually depicted as important to these CSO networks.

Significantly, migrant publics are not solely recipients of services but also creators of key connections for the CSOs, especially to other migrant families and individuals. In noting the significant actors in the Resettlement Aid NPO 1 social network, Blaine stated, “The families are also involved because they often end up being the ones who advocate for the newly arrived folks. . . . There are a bunch who will get involved with these organizations.” Migrants are a public that connects the organization with other migrants who need help, particularly their own family members or friends who have just arrived in the United States. These inter-public relationships also help build trust between CSOs and new publics. Louise noted that many of Shelter/Housing NPO’s current residents, migrants who would otherwise be homeless, followed in the footsteps of family members who were former Shelter/Housing NPO residents. She visually depicted both these actors on the social network map in the first and second rings with a strong tie (i.e., inter-public relationship) between them, noting: “I think there was trust, a lot of trust between residents and former residents, and more so than there was between residents and employees.” Her statement captures how the inter-public relationships often contain a level of trust that can help the organization when former migrant clients guide current migrant clients through the process.

The second part of the dichotomy of service is the reliance on other actors, especially key interorganizational relationships. On the organizational network maps, most list more organizations than people, groups, or distinct publics, illustrating the importance of interorganizational relationships, particularly with other migrant-serving CSOs. For example, although he represented Resettlement Aid NPO 1, Blaine noted a particular interorganizational relation with Resettlement Aid NPO 2, whom he placed in the innermost ring of the local actors quadrant: “A lot of the families that we set up apartments for get funneled to Resettlement Aid NPO 2 through either word of mouth or just directly through us. . . . I think it’s 80% or 90% overlap in families.” As the quote shows, the operations of the two CSOs are entwined with one another in that their interorganizational relationship helps each organization in its purpose of assisting migrant families to access material resources during their resettlement, with Resettlement Aid NPO 1 overseeing the furnishing of apartments and Resettlement Aid NPO 2 providing additional material goods. Although distinct, their purposes reveal a shared value to serve migrant publics in a way that is only possible through interorganizational relationships with other CSOs. Overall, the interactions between interorganizational actors ranged in quality, especially in terms of frequency of message exchange where more recurrent communication indicated greater importance.

Dichotomy of Glocal: Hyper-Local Networks of a Global Issue

The concept of glocalization, and the correlated adjective of glocal, underscores how the global is localized (Valentini, 2007). In this study, CSO representatives perceived their networks as united by a global issue yet highly localized. One participant, Cory, even said that she wished “more people could think of it as think globally and act locally.” The networks are glocal: glocalization characterizes their relationship diversity as well as the quality and norms of their interactions.

Generally, CSO participants articulated the transnational dimension of their work and network by highlighting how forced migration is a global issue. The global scale suggests an increase in relationship diversity because networks would be less bounded and would include a plethora of diverse actors/ties. For example, Maya from Legal Advocacy NPO noted a plethora of global and national actors, such as governments, immigrant rights organizations, foreign press, etc. She insisted that “other immigration organizations like United We Dream, UNICEF, and others are also helping fight this global issue really.” To her, having a network impacted by transnational mobility allowed for global connections and opportunities, especially in being united by a shared cause.

However, Maya’s perception was notably rare. Overall, the majority of CSO representatives acknowledged the global dimensions of their work but perceived their networks as very localized and subsequently not relationally diverse. Visually, most of the CSO maps showed an abundance of ties in the local quadrant. As Cory from Resettlement Aid NPO 2 succinctly put it, “The majority of the actors fall within the local quadrant just because we are very grassroots.” The emphasis is on action at the local level with the focus on particular individuals, groups, and communities who need assistance. As such, the networks as a transnational whole have minimal relationship diversity in terms of actors across quadrants and were furthermore perceived as having minimal relationship diversity across sectors within that local quadrant.

The glocalization and subsequent network homogeneity resulted in collaboration, wherein it was widely acknowledged that their organizations cannot be isolated in their efforts. The shared focus on how global migration becomes embedded at the local level joins these organizations together in the attempt to alleviate the issues that befall the mobile, marginalized publics. As Louise noted when discussing the relationships between Shelter/Housing NPO and other shelters, “It’s a comradery thing and I think usually it’s not competitive because we all understand the struggle.” Niall similarly mentioned the collaborative environment between VOLAG and the other resettlement agencies in the area: “We have really tight relationships with them. We have quarterly meetings to run through everything . . . so that we’re sharing the load and we’re sharing information.” The glocalization of these networks, in which a global issue is enacted at a local level, seemingly fosters collaboration, but not without its nuances. It is important to note that these instances of collaboration were most commonly between CSOs of the same organizational type and purpose. Pockets of collaboration between similar organizations seem to emerge because the scale of the issue is much larger than the scope of any one organization.

Dichotomy of Importance: Interactions and Impact Underlying Network Structure

Finally, findings for RQ3 present a unique complication to the assumption that only ties of interaction undergird network structures, instead emphasizing a dichotomy of importance that also highlights the significance of impact. The previous dichotomies show that interactions are still a significant component to understanding social networks. Some actors, however, were perceived as a part of the network regardless of the traditional interactional markers of ties such as frequency of exchange, collaboration, or time spent together.

Rather, certain actors were perceived as present in the organization network because of their impact, construed more specifically as their decision-making power, such as the global impact of the UNHCR. Speaking of its role in the Resettlement Aid NPO 1 network, Blaine explained:

It’s basically how families are matched to host countries or resettlement countries. . . . They, in a good year, do about 250,000. . . . We know of them and that’s about it. . . . We don’t interact with their world headquarters or whatever.

The work of the UNHCR in overseeing the resettlement of refugees across the world directly impacts the operations of Resettlement Aid NPO 1, and so the global actor is pertinent to their social network despite the absence of communicative interactions. This impact was further described by Niall, who noted that: “The UNHCR makes decisions that then affects us. . . . The UNHCR, actually, has . . . power to decide where refugees go. Whether they get refugee status, they’re more of the decision-makers.” The global actor’s presence on the social network map, despite the lack of interactions, emphasized the importance of impact to a social network structure.

The presence of and connections to an actor due to their impact was also relevant at the national level, especially including the U.S. government. The U.S. government, and in particular the president, has the right to set the number of refugees being resettled in a given year, and also oversees immigration policies (Ambar, 2022). These decisions have a prominent impact on the CSOs, according to participants, whether it was a resettlement agency or an NGO. As Niall explained:

I think all of the national decisions pending how many refugees are going to be admitted to the U.S. How many each year? What’s the ceiling going to be? That’s set by whatever administration’s in power. That greatly affects what our capacity is. What our funding is. They decide on funding. They decide on how much help we’re going to get really.

For VOLAG, decisions by the U.S. government have an immediate impact regarding their operations, especially because refugees are entitled to services and support from domestic agency affiliates (Ambar, 2022). In deciding how many and who, the U.S. government directly defines the expectations of VOLAG’s services. Other CSOs, like NPOs, were equally impacted. Many referenced the long-lasting damages inflicted by various Trump administration decisions. In seeking to restrain mobility, the decisions of the Trump administration greatly impacted the internal functioning of CSOs, threatening their survival and ability to serve migrant publics through funding cuts, etc. As such, organizational networks and the organizations within it are particularly vulnerable to the decisions of large actors at a national level.

Mobility as Transformative in Generating and Challenging Social Actors

Just as the existence and transformation of ecosystems depend on the presence and regulation of energy, so too are participants’ social network ecologies defined and altered by an undercurrent of mobility, a property that manifests in our exchanges and environments. The production of mobility by migrant publics is a transformative property that calls for other actors, resettlement agencies and certain NPOs, to exist while also challenging the structure of pre-existing institutions. As Miranda explained, VOLAG is a domestic branch of an international resettlement agency that exists to handle the resettlement of refugees in local contexts in relation to (a) the national refugee cap set by the U.S. president and (b) the decisions made by their national and international heads. VOLAG and other agencies exist in response to the mass forced migration that occurs globally, a type of transnational mobility that often incurs marginalization and requires special services from CSOs.

Similarly, NPO representatives noted how their organizations exist because of mass mobility and the subsequent marginalization of many mobile publics, including in response to limitations of agency capabilities. Cory explained how Resettlement Aid NPO 2 was founded to oversee assistance to refugee families beyond the basics of agency support, including the provision of material goods and educational opportunities. Blaine further described how mobility leads to the need for NGOs beyond agencies when describing Resettlement Aid NPO 1:

[We were] founded because when a family comes here, they each receive a resettlement stipend. Some of that goes to the agency to cover operating costs. Whatever doesn’t has to go to making sure the family is moved in according to federal standards . . . the federal requirements are the bare minimums . . . it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s enough for them to be okay or stable. [We] started because we were like, well, we can offset arguably probably the most expensive part of resettlement, which is just getting furniture and beds.

To summarize, Resettlement Aid NPO 1 and 2 exist because the transnational mobility of forced migration to the United States results in certain needs and realities that are not met by agency intervention alone, necessitating the involvement of other organizations. The production of mobility by some actors calls for the existence of other actors.

The existence of these CSOs, which inherently consider transnational mobility to serve those who enact it, stands in contrast to other societal institutions in the social network ecology, whose services may impact but do not necessarily center migrant publics. Rather, mobility may actively challenge the structures of these organizations, speaking to its overall transformative capability within a network. Significantly, this transformation is complex as the fluidity of mobility, and how it is enacted can make establishing long-term changes difficult. For example, Xara and the Labor Rights NPO focus on the experiences and rights of migrant agricultural workers, who often move cyclically depending on the harvest season and are a distinct mobile public with needs that challenge the structure of other societal institutions:

From a systems perspective, we do have more Latino families, more Spanish-speaking people who are settling in an area over time, but because a lot of them are temporary, there isn’t a big shift in what is actually made available. . . . I was speaking with someone from the local hospital and they’re like, “We know that there’s a need to have interpreters here, but because we don’t really have the numbers to capture that that’s actually a patient population that comes, we don’t know how to justify that cost.”

Necessary transformation, in terms of hiring more interpreters to improve service, is hindered by the mobility of the migrant public, whose presence requires better language services but whose transience leads to their perspective being uncounted. Xara noticed a similar issue with schools, which are often unprepared for the influx of bilingual/English language learner (ELL) migrant students in the fall as if they “don’t know how to plan for those students until they’re already there, and then by the time they try to think what could be something that we would do to help them, they’ve moved on again.” Labor Rights NPO works, in part, to push for transformations that align with patterns of mobility, especially among those not inherently attuned to migrant publics. The example showcases how mobility generates new social actors like Labor Rights NPO and challenges the structures and procedures of other social actors in the network like hospitals and schools. Overall, the production of mobility by migrant publics is akin to the production of energy by producers in the natural world—it is a transformative property that generates the existence of other actors and challenges other structures in the environment, such as the procedures of existing social actors.

Complicated, Necessary Ties: Niche Relationships in Network Ecologies

The production of mobility by some actors (i.e., migrant publics) also delineated the need for certain ties between social actors. These relationships are not inherently voluntary and/or positive. Rather, organizations perceived these complicated relationships with nuance, even describing the ties as tense amid frequent exchanges of communication. In the context of this project, three complicated relational niches emerge due to the presence of transnational mobility: Agency-Nonprofit, CSO-Housing Organizations, and CSO-Law Enforcement.

Relying on Digital Channels Due to Transnational Mobility

The mobility underlying a network ecology, including the presence and connections of certain actors, also impacts the specific behaviors of actors, particularly how they can respond to the fluidity of mobility. Here, CSO actors identified and prioritized significant communication behaviors, notably the reliance on digital channels, that reflect the mobility of publics. In the following sections, I detail how mobility as an undercurrent to a social network also impacts the strategies and behaviors that facilitate ties.

First, the mobility that underlies the network requires the use of communication modalities that align with its transnationalism; it relies on communications that can circumvent geopolitical borders. In particular, the transnational mobility at the heart of the network emphasizes the significance of digital communication channels. Blaine from Resettlement Aid NPO 1 explained:

In the modern age of resettlement, there are . . . people who run these massive networks, who are refugees themselves, who run these massive communication networks. About like, when the smugglers are coming, what the tide is on those islands, and how to get out. There are WhatsApp groups that show paths to get through to Europe.

The use of digital communication technologies is an ingrained part of modern mobility, especially in this context of forced transnational migration. In asserting its importance, Blaine continued: “I think we can’t ignore that that’s going to be a major thing moving forward in communication. Whether it’s for the families here, the families coming here, or the people stuck in between.” The transnationalism in a mobile network means prioritizing the use of digital technologies and channels from one actor (migrant publics) that in turn influences the network’s other actors (CSOs).

Second, CSO actors highlighted their own use of digital communication for maintaining their network because of the network’s inherent mobility. Cory from Resettlement Aid NPO 2 said: “The families we communicate with fairly regularly . . . are reaching out to us always asking for help with X, Y, or Z. It’s almost all over email, text messages, WhatsApp.” Blaine also shared how “when Kabul fell, one of the links we used to send out was like a Google Doc that was just, here are scams that the Taliban are running.” In fact, many of the basic programs these CSOs operate to serve their migrant publics rely on digital channels to a degree. For example, both Bridget from VOLAG and Cory from Resettlement Aid NPO 1 noted the significance of digital WhatsApp groups between volunteers to access and share both information and material goods. Xara similarly noted how Labor Rights NPO, as well as the orchards in their network, uses WhatsApp to stay in contact with more cyclical populations of migrant publics:

We do get messages from the people who we work with whenever they’ve gotten back to Mexico and mostly on WhatsApp . . . especially when they’re maybe preparing to come back to the area and giving us an update about what the plans are.

These migrants are more frequently mobile than some of their resettled counterparts, and the network actors rely on digital channels when they are out of the area.

Digital channels have even extended the outreach and service of CSOs in some cases. For example, Blaine noted how the family service manager for Resettlement Aid NPO 1 is “a part of a couple of massive WhatsApp groups” for regular communication, but the organization has also used digital channels to go beyond its normal mission: “We have gotten emails from families that are hiding out in basements in Kabul. We have been able to connect to either sponsors or organizations.” The transnational, mobile publics rely on digital channels, including to connect with CSOs, who, in turn, also use digital communication to provide beyond their typical service capacity.

WhatsApp was noted as a significant digital communication channel, more than any other. As Louise from Shelter/Housing NPO captured “There’s not a universal WhatsApp number for Casa. If there was, it would be blowing up constantly.” Even as a case manager, she would “get some calls on my WhatsApp number . . . from families and Haiti and the DRC” who wanted to check in to see if family members had arrived at the shelter. In one case, she recalled, “family members from a Nigerian man who was in detention sent me his information and said, ‘Hey, can you check on him? Did he make it?’ He was there the next day.” WhatsApp stood out clearly as a prioritized means for migrants and organizations to communicate. It is an internationally available freeware with instant messaging and voice-over-IP service and is thereby perceived as more accessible and reliable when accounting for transnational mobility. As Blaine confirmed, Everyone has a smartphone, or like a SIM card. I can’t guarantee they’ll have a laptop, but they definitely have a WhatsApp.” WhatsApp is a strategic channel for CSO actors to maintain with both their volunteers and their publics because of the mobility inherent to their network. Blaine further captured its importance:

There are families who their journeys start and end with a WhatsApp group, which is like, here’s how you would get to a secondary country. Then there will be WhatsApp groups about how to apply for resettlement. Then when they arrive in that country, that will be added likely to WhatsApp groups of whatever is appropriate for them linguistically or culturally.

WhatsApp is a prime example of the entanglement between mobility and digitality and how this impacts network actors, including the CSO actors who maintain this digital behavior.

Ultimately, actors have modified their behavior due to the conditions of their network, notably the mobility and subsequent transnationalism underlying it. More specifically, migrant publics, and in turn CSOs, have relied on digital channels, especially WhatsApp, to maintain their network. This includes their interactions with each other, and notably the ability of the CSOs to serve these publics.

Mobility, Migrant Publics, and Actor Agency

This research importantly rectifies the notable absence of publics from networked public relations scholarship (Zhou, 2019) through a unique case of people undergoing drastic life changes that alter their perceptions and expectations of themselves and their ties within a wider network. It is a critical counterbalance to the privileging of organizational voices and interorganizational relationships in SNA (Zhou, 2019) that highlights publics, too, frame their communication and thus meanings and relationships in relation to the actors and forces of a network ecology. For migrant participants, while articulating and mapping the varied actors of their social networks conveyed a perception of isolation, they also expressed the role of larger, societal forces at play. It aligns with Rivers and Webers (2011), who assert that communicators are never solitary agents but rather exist within a complicated system beyond just immediate contexts. Participants negotiated the meaning of their existence within a wider ecology as well as expressed their own agency in the shaping of this network.

As such, this research extends public relations ecological perspectives that stress agency within social networks (e.g., Madden et al., 2021; Sommerfeldt & Yang, 2017; Yang & Taylor, 2015) by finding that publics also actively strategize in the maintenance of their social networks, including because of/in light of experiences of transnational mobility. Networked public relations scholarship attests that actor agency is important to network dynamics and transformation and that decision-making and communicative strategies can help actors to shape their own networks and impact structural positioning and specific relationships (Sommerfeldt & Yang, 2017; Yang & Taylor, 2015). Highlighting the impact of mobility on the conditions of social networks makes evident that migrant publics do not inherently acquiesce to resulting dynamics; they, like organizations, are strategic about and shape their networks intentionally. In particular, publics can and do strategize to alter their social networks in relation to the opportunities and constraints of the wider network mobile ecology. Therefore, I urge networked public relations scholars to take into account publics’ (non)desire for a relationship (Waymer, 2015).

In this case, the action and context of mobility impacted participants’ perception of and strategizing about certain relational ties, including whether they would seek to maintain these connections regardless of previous affinity. It was not merely that transnational migration put physical distance between actors (although that plays into the details of whether or how a tie is maintained) but also the perception of a connection in relation to distinct objectives and values. Publics actively chose to disrupt, end, and/or abandon transnational organizational ties following experiences of mobility because they either no longer served the aims or represented the identities, experiences, or livelihoods of said publics. For example, many participants were either women who had received higher education in Afghanistan or men who had supported women in their family who were pursuing education. However, following the takeover of the Taliban, societal organizations (including the prior educational institutions of participants) were no longer able to support the education of girls and women. In turn, participants elected to abandon maintaining these previously significant ties because of a misalignment of values. Organizations are not the only social actors to be strategic and intentional with whom they form and maintain communicative relationships; publics also alter and shape their networks both despite and because of lived experiences. Thus, the contextual negotiation of identities, meanings, and relationships by publics is significant to network transformation.

Furthermore, in strategizing on how to shape their social networks, publics consider the wider mobile social network ecology and what constraints/opportunities it affords. In this way they, like organizations, aim to be strategic in their relationship building in conjunction with their current and aspired curation of social ties (Yang & Saffer, 2019). For example, despite their previous significance to people’s identities and livelihoods, some employment institutions in Afghanistan were abandoned. Not only was the physical distance a constraint to maintaining ties with these organizations, but migrants also perceived those organizations as being unable to assist with current and aspired objectives, such as finding employment in the United States. Instead, participants wanted to direct their resources, time, and effort into fostering new ties in the United States. These ties would not be constrained by transnationalism and could afford opportunities for employment. This showcases how publics, too, are intentional in assessing their needs and the wider mobile social network ecology to prioritize communication with certain nodes to foster relational ties. This aligns with Sommerfeldt and Yang’s (2017) description of organizational network strategy in that, as a social actor, a public may seek to build networks strategically by altering the immediate ecology in pursuit of perceived benefits. Publics, too, articulate agency in the shaping of their social networks in relation to the impacts of mobility.

This research extends scholarship about the relevance of actor agency by highlighting public choice in the dissolution of network dynamics such as the abandonment of ties. In this case, just as participants noted they aspired and strategized to be more embedded within American ties, their articulations of strategically shaping their network also manifested in the dissolution of ties. Participants made active decisions to forgo pre-existing organizational relationships after migrating with clear rationales for dissolving certain network dynamics. Importantly, this integrates public choice into the relational ties of social networks, merging work from the relationship management paradigm that asserts the significance of publics’ (non)desire for relationships (Waymer, 2015) and its implication within the context of transnational mobile social network ecologies.

Waymer (2015) argued against the assumption that only organizations could set the parameters of a dyadic relationship with a public, critiquing not just the absence of the perspectives of publics but also the expectation that they always wanted a relationship. This commentary is even more applicable at the network level of analysis wherein additional factors, ties, or opportunities may impact publics to feel dissatisfied with another social actor and wish to remain communicatively separate from them. Waymer (2015) noted that this communicative distance could be expected between publics and organizations that have harmed them, persons they know, or persons like them—a phenomenon that is captured in these research findings. Participants communicatively distanced themselves from Afghan social institutions that continue to harm persons like them under Taliban rule, whether organizations that deny women and girls opportunities for education or the institutional enactment of Taliban violence and norms against the Afghan citizens. In proposing the mobile social network ecology, I not only assert the importance of recognizing publics as relevant social actors but also emphasize the significance of their agency and (non)desires to the transformation of network dynamics.

The Importance of Publics for CSO Network Dynamics

The importance of publics as social actors in the wider network ecology is also salient from the perspective of CSOs and how they approach issues at the core of their connections. Previous network scholarship has privileged interorganizational relations (Yang, 2020; Zhou, 2019), ultimately neglecting the nuances of publics as network actors and/or within network dynamics, particularly the role and impact of publics who experience the issue firsthand. In contrast, this research identified that migrant publics were perceived as essential within the network of migrant-serving CSOs, including in their current and subsequent interactions.

CSO participants viewed their mobile publics, those who have firsthand experience of forced transnational migration, as a significant actor within their organizational networks. CSO representatives perceived their organizational operations and communication as being in service to their migrant publics, illustrating how communication social networks offer opportunities for interaction among organizations and their key publics (Yang & Taylor, 2015). In this case, the inclusion of the strong ties with publics who have experienced transnational migration firsthand and the CSOs’ motivation of serving this distinct public captured not only for whom operations are done for but also nuances to the “multidimensional explanations of why and how NGOs form ties” (Yang, 2020, p. 48), such as their reliance on interorganizational relationships. The varied communication interactions reflect the entirety of the network, including, prominently, the publics whom these CSOs serve. While previous studies have focused on the impact of public attention (Sommerfeldt et al., 2022; Sommerfeldt & Yang, 2017; Yang, 2020), I situate public experience as being equally important in holistic understandings of network ecology because it asserts the inclusion of key publics who have experienced an issue as fundamental to networks and their dynamics.

In addition, key mobile publics with whom CSOs held strong ties (i.e., the migrant publics they served) were significant in providing new connections to the organizations, as well as bolstering those resulting weaker ties via interpublic relations. As Yang and Taylor (2015) noted in describing a network perspective, “the identification of publics is insufficient. . . . [I]t is also important for an organization to understand how its publics interact with each other” (p. 100). In this vein, CSO representatives articulated how migrant publics created important connections for the organization to other individuals, groups, and members of the migrant community. Their strong ties with their target mobile public (i.e., current migrants) thereby generate weak ties with secondary mobile publics (i.e., incoming migrants). This interpublic connection becomes a means for organizations to efficiently build new relationships, although this is not always possible (Yang & Taylor, 2015); it also seems to align with Doerfel and Taylor (2017) in that this interpublic linkage reifies a lifeline of support for the CSOs in that it insures a steady stream of migrants linked to their operations. In addition, these interpublic ties between current and incoming migrants were perceived as having more trust, something from which the organization could benefit. Weak ties are not always or inherently conducive to higher trust levels (Yang & Taylor, 2015), but the interpublic trust may have cross-network implications. Namely, the quality of the interpublic relationship may bolster what would otherwise be a new, weak organization-public tie, especially in the greater context of a mobile social network ecology. This research thus aligns with public relations scholars calling for further examination of interpublic and intrapublic relations (Atwell Seate et al., 2022; Iannacone, 2021b; Morehouse, 2024; Morehouse & Saffer, 2023; Zhou, 2019).

Ultimately, the first premise speaks to the inclusivity of the plethora of interactions, actors, and forces within a wider mobile social network ecology, such as those who enact or perform mobility, the forces that prompt patterns of mobility, and those ties that must make sense of that mobility. As such, it ensures that networked public relations scholarship grapples with the impact of publics as a social actor within a network ecology. In highlighting publics’ agency and (non)desires as salient to network dynamics, their presence and interpublic connections are additionally significant to CSO network perceptions and interactions. It reifies that including all social actors, interactions, and forces within network dynamics is essential for organizations to understand the quality of current and future ties, particularly in the strategizing around a core issue. Rather than having a limited conceptualization of the role and impact of publics, their experience with the issue (i.e., transnational migration as an example of enacting mobility) and their subsequent communication behaviors are noted as essential in the dynamics of the mobile social network ecology.

Mobility and the Exclusion of Migrant Publics From Civil Society Networks

The Afghan migrant publics studied here notably manifested mobility, highlighting how social actors cannot be assumed to be static and incorporating the context of movement into the structure and dynamics of the network ecology. For the migrant participants of this research, their mobility came about in relation to the Taliban rise to power in Afghanistan, and their physical movement incurred changes to their social network, such as the presence of new actors and ties (notably CSOs that oversee the resettlement of refugees to the United States). As suggested by scholars of the new mobility paradigm (e.g., Cresswell, 2010, 2020; Dutta & Shome, 2018), their mobility also reflected an entanglement of political power (such as the disruption of organizations in Afghanistan) and overarching international relations (specifically U.S.-Afghanistan relations) that altered participants’ expectations and communicative behaviors in the maintenance of their social networks (such as their assumptions about CSO involvement). The enactment and context of mobility are salient factors to a network. Most importantly, this research highlights how the context of mobility can incur social network changes that exclude a mobile public from civil society.

Mobility is an important and transformative element in the ecologies of social networks. It can also showcase how distinct public experiences of transnational migration have ramifications for the inclusion into and fostering of civil society for these mobile publics. This research found that the experience of mobility left Afghan refugees feeling isolated from key institutions and opportunities in the United States and facing disruption (intentional and involuntary) to connections in Afghanistan. These migrant social networks depicted minimal overlap with those forming civil society. This aligns with scholarship in migration studies and communication that discuss how certain groups, such as migrants, can be marginalized from the connections and exchanges that represent an opportunity to publicize their needs and prompt action (Cresswell, 2020; Dutta-Bergman, 2005; Sommerfeldt, 2013a). More specifically, this research shows how migrant participants can be excluded from civil society in having both (a) minimal connections to organizations and groups that represent civil society (Putnam, 1993; Taylor, 2009) and (b) limited means to publicize their needs and interests as a means of prompting action and mediating the role of the state (Sommerfeldt, 2013a).

Afghan refugees who studied here expressed challenges in connecting to civil society such as their struggles to generate ties with U.S. citizens and CSOs, showcasing limited opportunities to belong. Simultaneously, participants face the risk that their rights as refugees may be revoked, such as losing their work permits and deportation protections (Montoya-Galvez, 2023). It evokes a sense of what Bishop (2019) called a perpetual limbo or uncertainty. Operating with uncertainties but without connections illustrates a limited means of bringing critical publicity to their issues, highlighting an exclusion from a civil society (Sommerfeldt, 2013a). As such, this project underscores how the enactment and context of mobility can be not only a transformative property of social networks but also a precursor to inclusion or exclusion from civil society networks.

Public Mobility and the Impact of Involuntary Ties in CSO Networks

The actors who enact mobility are not the only ones to be impacted by its enactment and context, as evidenced by the inclusion of and narratives from migrant-serving CSOs. For migrant-serving CSOs, the public mobility inherent to their networks is perceived as enacting an issue network surrounding the context of forced transnational migration to the United States (c.f., R. L.Heath & Palenchar, 2008; Heclo, 1978; Sommerfeldt et al., 2022; Yang, 2020). CSO participants perceived mobility as an underlying reason generating the network, or more specifically, the formation and maintenance of their organizational network related to the issue of forced, transnational migration to the United States. Namely, the patterns of mobility and how they connect to distinct historic, cultural and sociopolitical power structures enact certain affordances and regulations that can be socially constructed as an issue (Hirschman et al., 1999; Yang, 2020). CSO representatives I talked to described their networks as centered around the issue of forced, transnational migration to the United States.

Understandings of issue networks have largely revolved around assumptions of organizational agency and voluntary ties within a network, from which other actors may make meaning of dyadic alliances (Yang, 2020). However, this research underscores the presence of complicated ties within CSO networks that overall were perceived as involuntary or forced relationships. These involuntary ties illustrate the unique ways that mobility connects certain actors, potentially unwillingly, across the larger social network ecology. This research establishes that studies of network ecologies and social networks are limited when scholars only focus on voluntary ties. Significant scholarship about voluntary ties and organization agency is available within network building, but network ecologies are not matters of “either/or.” Rather, the presence of voluntary and involuntary ties should be considered in tandem.

More specifically, the presence of public mobility in the organizational networks made for tense ties between, among others, nonprofits and resettlement agencies, CSOs and housing organizations, and with the various levels of law enforcement, notably because of the U.S.-specific regulations surrounding mass forced migration. While scholars can treat these social actors as issue stakeholders within an issue network (Yang, 2020), the CSO representatives of this study, importantly, perceived them as required relationships and undesired ties. The CSO issue network thereby experiences salient involuntary connections when mobility is recognized as a factor in the social network ecology. Important to this discussion, CSO representatives emphasized involuntary ties as required not only for organizational operations but also as significant and strong connections, culminating in tense, complicated ties within an organizational network. CSO participants said they needed to work closely and frequently with organizations whose ideologies or values conflicted with their own, representing relationships they would rather not have but need to engage with to serve their mobile publics. For this project, CSO representatives emphasized that their networks included involuntary ties with actors worsening the problem (i.e., Border Patrol, ICE, detention centers). The CSO participants interacted with these actors in the interest of serving their publics, and representatives saw these ties as both undesired and less trusted.

This juxtaposition highlights some important dimensions. One is that although strong ties involve close and frequent interactions between social actors (Uzzi, 1996; Yang & Taylor, 2015), this is only one part of measuring the tie’s quality, alongside intimacy, mutual confiding, and reciprocity (Granovetter, 1973, 1983; Sommerfeldt & Yang, 2017; Yang & Taylor, 2015). Frequency of interactions alone does not result in the affinity of intense and close relationships, which can lead to higher levels of trust (Sommerfeldt & Kent, 2015; Uzzi, 1996; Yang & Taylor, 2015). As such, two, the presence of strong ties does not necessarily equate to the presence of positive ties; research needs to consider whether the relationship is perceived as voluntary.

Ultimately, this second premise expresses that movement is inherent to social networks, including the ways and contexts in which social actors physically move through space and time. Just as a social network ecology is not fixed in its understanding of interactions and texts (Edbauer, 2005), neither are social actors always foregrounded by situs as a fixed space-location, implicating the overarching dynamics of a network. The Afghan refugees, as an example of migrant publics, expressed how their experiences of mobility incurred a sense of exclusion from civil society. This inclusion of movement is additionally relevant for the whole social network ecology, not just the actors who enact mobility; involuntary ties were seen as a necessary component to CSO networks that need to be further considered in conjunction with voluntary ties and the overarching network dynamics manifested by public mobility. Mobility is thereby a salient dimension to understanding social networks and its amalgamation of texts, ties, and relational expectations.

Publics Interactions, Tertius Iungens, and Expectations for Inclusion

Publics’ understanding of their connections to organizational and interpersonal actors in their networks reflects the “effects and concatenations” of their ecologies (Edbauer, 2005, p. 22), including the past and current connections as well as any potential future ties. This included not only the lived, historic, and temporal dimensions identified by Edbauer (2005) but also the enactment and context of mobility, as stipulated by this research. For example, while the action of mobility led participants to prioritize digital channels to communicate with their significant family ties, the context surrounding that mobility (i.e., the rise of the Taliban) also meant that participants feared for the safety of their family members still in Afghanistan and what may be trackable through digital channels. Participants’ previous support of and current residency in the United States further bolstered concerns and the potential of violence. Their current communication behavior illustrated these multiple, overlapping dimensions—although they relied on digital channels, participants ultimately had interpersonal conversations that were shorter, more conservative, and vastly different from how these relations were previously characterized. These narratives captured interactions as manifesting a plethora of connections and forces, such as between them, their family, and the Taliban. Notably, the interconnected nature of relationships was exemplified in the United States, particularly regarding how participants interacted in the hope of inclusion in American civil society.

While the context of mobility incurs exclusion from civil society, some subsequent expectations and hopes for inclusion impact network relational strategies. While participants perceived their social networks as currently outside of civil society, they did not depict it as inherently external to it, highlighting that with network transformation comes new expectations of its dynamics and the hope of/potential for inclusion. This research showcased how migrants’ strategies for generating new ties were entangled with their lived experience of being disconnected from previous relationships and expectations of being embedded in American civil society networks through the tertius iungens (Kent et al., 2016) of organizational representatives. A Latin phrase for the “third who joins others” (Kent et al., 2016, p. 91), tertius iungens is an orientation that emphasizes ethically uniting unconnected actors to develop relationships between multiple parties to address community issues. This research extends and examines this concept in the context of a migrant, marginalized public whose strategizing is not a removed process but interwoven with various mobile, historic, and temporal contexts that color the public’s expectations of other social actors and network positioning.

Because of disruption to significant civil society ties across their transnational networks, migrant participants strategized toward or actualized strong ties with the few CSOs with whom they had contact. These relationships fit the literature’s depiction of strong ties: migrants had (or wished for) frequent communication, emotional intensity, and intimacy with the migrant-serving CSOs (Sommerfeldt & Kent, 2015; Uzzi, 1996; Yang & Taylor, 2015). Equally important, the expectation and behavior of strong ties with organizations represented the manifestation of various contexts, enacting a dual strategy of accessing distinct resources and benefits as well as becoming embedded into a shared network—that of American civil society. By developing strong ties marked by intense and close relationships, actors ensure a deep embeddedness due to a more likely shared and/or overlapping social network (Sommerfeldt & Yang, 2017). Strong ties between the migrant public and the migrant-serving organizations were perceived as the “in” to civil society, both as the connections to other important institutions and its normative potential of representation and publicity (Sommerfeldt, 2013a; Taylor, 2009).

In particular, the expectations and behaviors of strong ties culminated around the organizational representatives that migrant participants perceived as being able to bridge the communicative gaps of their social network, that is, tertius iungens (Kent et al., 2016). Migrant participants emphasized case managers and volunteer mentors as the social actors most ingrained in both civil society and in the unique case/experience of the migrant. These organizational representatives showcased a potential for enacting tertius iungens, especially in their significance in welcoming migrant participants to the United States. Participants emphasized the importance of interpersonal ties to these organizational representatives, particularly in whether/how they connected them to various aspects of the U.S. society (i.e., resources, information, places, employment, etc.). Migrant participants voiced that their relationships with organizational representatives were opportunities to generate additional ties, center their needs, and result in greater autonomy. Participants perceived representatives in line with what Kent and colleagues (2016) described as the means of establishing cross-cultural connections to unite members of a community and members’ plurality of interests.

However, the connections to certain organizational members and their resources are asserted and constrained by the U.S. policies, which regulate if and how migrants can access key resources, particularly temporally. For example, those legally entitled to refugee rights and protections have access to various services and support provided by the domestic affiliate agencies, but most essential funding does not extend beyond an initial 90-day period. Many recent migrants expect to benefit from the connections and resources of organizational representatives indefinitely. Many migrants may not know the regulations surrounding those resources and commit ample time, efforts, and intimacy in the cultivation and maintenance of ties with organizational representatives. Yet, this relationship and the interactions that sustain it will inevitably reflect the limitations of both practitioner ability and organizational capacity (e.g., funding that only extends for 3 months). If/when the tertius iungens is not enacted or the hoped-for results and benefits do not manifest, it is not just a matter of a failed strategy. Rather, this is entangled in lived experiences and emotions, often exacerbating the disappointment from expectations going unmet. At the heart of the matter, unmet connections not only leave certain needs unfulfilled but also represent a continued exclusion from civil society and the possibility of affecting the conditions of their existence (Sommerfeldt, 2013a). Overall, interactions, especially those in the form of interpersonal CSO relationships, thereby reflected their mobility (i.e., wishing to be embedded in a new society), the historic context of their networks (i.e., the disruption to other significant ties in their former society), and the temporal boundaries of national policy (i.e., regulations that limit access to key resources and connections).

Context and CSOs’ Strategic Digital Interactions

The third premise of the mobile social network ecology is also evident from the perspectives of CSOs. This research demonstrates that CSO communication strategies reflect a myriad of temporal, historical, lived and mobile contexts. CSO representatives acknowledged publics, interpublic relationships, and reflected on how the context of public experiences with transnational mobility stipulated conditions for maintaining key relationships. In recognizing the social as interconnected situational exigencies, this research highlighted key conditions and constraints influential on how CSOs foster important ties through significant behaviors (i.e., privileging digital communication) and channels (i.e., WhatsApp). CSO participants’ recognition of target and secondary publics (i.e., current and incoming migrants) in their social networks provides nuance to how the organizations, in turn, maintain their network and operations of service, especially through digital channels.

CSO actors relied on digital channels, notably WhatsApp. This prioritization reflects the transnational mobility of their publics and illustrating the contemporary entanglement between human mobility and digital technology (Chouliaraki & Georgiou, 2022). CSO representatives explained how organizations modified their behavior to privilege digital channels in the formation of weak ties (particularly with incoming migrants) due to the mobility and subsequent transnationalism underlying their social networks. This aligns with Yang and Taylor’s (2015) assertion that new media technologies are useful for the facilitation of weak ties, such as with people who lack regular access to or contact with the organization. The strategic use of digital channels afforded the organizations further opportunities to serve impacted publics. As such, this case further captures that instant messaging and mobile instant messaging, such as WhatsApp, is an increasingly common form of digital communication across industries to facilitate dialogue between practitioners and key stakeholders (Mashiah, 2021).

Ultimately, the third premise of a mobile social network ecology recognizes that the interactions and relationships within such networks are both manifestations of and themselves manifest temporal, historical, lived and mobile contexts. The social is not grounded in one reality but reflects a variety of fluctuating factors (Edbauer, 2005). This flux implicates not only the network dynamics but also how the social actors within them interact with and strategize in relation to one another. For the Afghan refugee participants, that was evident in their (unmet) expectations surrounding CSOs and their interactions with organizational representatives as a means of inclusion. These relationships were shaped by a myriad of contexts and perceived as entangled with the past, present, and future identities and livelihoods of the migrant participants. For the CSO representatives, their strategic prioritization of digital channels reflected the transnational and mobile contexts salient to their networks. The presence of multiple publics that had experienced transnational migration signified which channels to use for important tie-building; relationships were formed and maintained in interconnected encounters, conditions, and expectations all characterized by ongoing fluidity.