Page - 63 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Heinz Bonfadelli | Media Use of Ethnic Minority Youth 63 the world of football or music in order to define their own style, by means of which they express themselves. Media play an important part for them, both for keeping in touch with peers and relatives or for discussing news from the world of sports or show business. - Migrant youths often do not fully belong to both the Swiss culture and the culture of origin. They develop the deepest roots in the place where they live and in relationships to a broad – sometimes international – network of relatives, friends and peers. In such a situation, a political aim of straightforward assimilation is highly counterproductive. - Contrary to the widely held belief that young people of migrant background live in a kind of “parallel society” and/or “media ghetto”, our study indicates that migrant youths are not a homogeneous group, but are characterized by a diversity of individual personalities, social backgrounds and manifold patterns of media use. As a consequence, policy measures, school projects or media coverage should take this existing social and cultural diversity more into account. - Yet, there is mutual influence as well. Young people of both Swiss and migrant backgrounds share many media and cultural preferences typical of people their age – above all, globalized youth-oriented television and music programs, youth magazines and internet sites. - Young people of migration background (and their parents, too) have high aspirations regarding their chances of education and future occupation. These claims and efforts remain in conflict with the existing educational inequalities of children from other countries of origin and with other mother tongues. Despite these ‘hurdles’, the majority of young people of migrant background is surprisingly satisfied. 6. Conclusions Our multidisciplinary research project attempted to achieve several objectives concerning theory, methods and data, and is intended to be of practical relevance for various fields, such as the social sciences, school and family education as well as journalistic practice. On a theoretical level, the project tried to enrich the theoretical foundations of a culturally oriented migration theory by linking concepts of media use with the perspective of a globalized community of young immigrant media users. Using concepts like “hybrid identities”, we referred to socialization theory and