External Citizens and Social Media: Participating in Civic Unrest from Abroad. The Case of Turks and Iranians in Sweden

Transnational political participation is nowadays being redefined by the possibility to have constant communication with social and political events around the globe. Such change make it possible for immigrants and their descendants to be active members from abroad and take part in local protest and national demonstrations of unrest. Many immigrants are legally members of the country that they left behind. Dual citizens have been depicted as a status that allows for an “external citizenship” or in possession of a “dormant citizenship”. What could “awake” the political interest of citizens who do not reside in the country? Transnational political spaces might empower external citizens to act and try to influence what happens in their ancestral country. New technologies and social media could act as important tools to engage or reenchant external citizens with political events that cause important changes in the national society. This paper analyzes the political interest, engagement and participation of dual citizens in the social movements of the countries where they are external citizens i.e. non-residential nationals. Through in-depth interviews this study explores the involvement of individuals who reside and are citizens in Sweden and a second country, Iran or Turkey. Considering the Iranian ‘Green Revolution’ – also known as Iran’s “twitter revolution” - or the ‘Gezi park’ protests external citizens narrated their degree of involvement in the protest communication and mobilization through social media and other digital channels. The material gathered suggests a redefined version of being a citizen from abroad. Social unrest and the possibility to know more about it through social media - sometimes acquiring a “citizens’ journalism” character - makes more visible external citizens’ political agency. Social movements and the possibility to follow these through social media provide to external citizens a kind of political agency that activates their non-residential citizenship.