What makes online migrant groups communities? A view from Randall Collins’ “radical microsociology”

At the age of transnationalism, social networks and messengers enable to create groups that assemble migrants with similar interests and practices. These groups may and may not imply shared myth of common origin (B. Anderson), or living in a common territory (R. Park). What makes these online groups communities? And why do not they break up? This paper is organized as theoretical consideration of these two questions. Interaction ritual chains theory developed R. Collins explains reproduction of communities in terms of group symbols and accumulation of emotional energy during everyday interactions.