Abstract

The article deals with the role of social networks in facilitating migration and maintaining ties of information, emotional support and financial assistance among emigrants’ host and origin countries. The aim of the study has been to analyze and identify how the emigrants’ social relationships and identities are constructed at the foundation of social networks, how the participation in networks shape the individual decision of migrants. The main analytical argument refers to the theory of migration networks, which argues that emigration networks are mbedded in the social rules, norms and social context of the host and destination country. Based on the results of the qualitative research of Lithuanian emigration in European countries, the article concludes that the migration networking is based on the mutual interdependence and the nature of the social ties which shape the individual emigration strategies and opportunities in decision-making, community formation and settlement processes