Learning in the wild behaviours: Migrants seeking information through social media

Project Lead(s)

Team Members

Sub-theme
The role of ADTs in mediating migration decisions and their impact on expectations about life in Canada

Projects in this sub-theme explore how ADTS such as online platforms, social media, and AI influence migration decisions by shaping information infrastructures, impacting mobility aspirations, and altering settlement experiences for immigrants.

Objective

There are many ways that migrants learn socially in an online setting. The landscape of social media is fast evolving and so is the use of social media by newcomers.

This project aims to explore the ways in which newcomers engage with different types of social media platforms performing information retrieval search and connective learning.

Research question(s)

What are the features/factors that shape migrants' usage of social media platforms for seeking information or building networks?
What is the connection between in-person and online seeking of information and networking?
What types of information are migrants seeking and learning from online connections and communities?
What are the main concerns of newcomers when using social media?

Methodology

This project will use a mixed-methods approach including semi-structured surveys, online experiments, and interviews. This study will collect and analyse publicly available posts and metadata from social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, YouTube, and Telegram.

Status

The team is currently developing further work focusing on micro influencers in the social media as well as analysing social survey data from the Virtual Bridge project, analysing the ways in which newcomers use social media to search for information in different social media platforms. Interviews with microinfluencers are in progress.

Expected completion: August 2026

Outcomes

Published or in press publications:

Triandafyllidou, A. and Monteiro, S. (2024) Migration narratives on social media: Digital racism and subversive migrant subjectivities, 29(8-5), August 2024. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/issue/view/754 (external link) .

Triandafyllidou, A. and Monteiro, S. (2024) Migration narratives on social media: Digital racism and subversive migrant subjectivities, 29(8-5), August 2024. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v29i8.13715 (external link)

Related projects

Virtual Bridge: Delivering Settlement Services Through Social Media (Anna Triandafyllidou, Stein Monteiro and Nevyn Pillai)

Keywords

ADTs; advanced digital technologies; information; social media