This article suggests that money payments are central to the persistence of informality in Ukraine because they are more complex than simple bribes-they cement social obligations and even reciprocity. The article contributes to fields of literature in transnational migration and cross-cultural perspectives towards friendship and argues that the kinds of friendship forged by the experiences of international students are significant for capturing an aspect of the diversity of migrant relationships. Drawing on qualitative research in Melbourne ( n = 59) and Singapore ( n = 61), this article examines the ways in which international students invest in developing friendships with other international students based on shared circumstances in the cities in which they are living and studying. Further, research in transnational families and digital media highlights the strategies for maintaining family relationships By contrast, research on friendship is currently limited and, more so, the centrality of the emotional aspects of friendships as intimacy as well as networks of support has received less attention, particularly from a culturally comparative perspective. The importance of kin relations and neighbourhoods has received considerable attention in research on transnational migration.
In explaining this phenomenon, this paper examines the function and meaning of gift exchange in Cybertown in relation to contemporary theoretical notions of the gift, explains what kinds of obligations gifts engender and what role gift practices play in creating networks of friendship. For example, my own ethnographic research in Cybertown, a virtual community on the Internet, suggests that one important concept for friendship in Cybertown is the exchange of the 'gift of time', and highlights its role in the creation of trust and reciprocity. In cyberspace several fascinating questions come into light, for example: what kinds of gifts are exchanged in cyberspace how are these gifts exchanged there and what does the exchange of gifts in cyberspace signify? An analysis of the 'gift of time' is particularly pertinent when investigating friendship in virtual communities because gift exchange in cyberspace can be related to notions of reciprocity and trust. With the continuing movement of social life into new types of places such as cyberspace the function and meaning of gift-exchange has emerged as being an important anthropological tool for the investigation of social relations online.
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