Social networks of migrants as a new communication locality, quasi-institutions of ethnicity and the logic of virtualization of social capital

The article considers conceptual approaches to the study of virtual communities as a special type of social association of users of communication networks, and characterizes the socio-cultural features of online Internet communities. An analysis is made of social network platforms of the Internet as a new communicative infrastructure of ethnic discourse and an ethnic quasi-institutional organization of social practices of migrants. It is shown how the combination of a virtual and a real plan of social interaction, thanks to the development of communication platforms of the Internet and instant messengers, changes the identity and mutual practices of accumulating social capital in ethnic migrant communities. It is determined how the transfer of offline networks of migrants into the format of virtual ethnocommunities ("digital diasporas") changes both the nature of communications within the social networks of migrants, and their role and significance as a social "quasi-institution" for arranging the life of a migrant inside/outside the host community.