Moving with the media: An exploration of how migrant communities in New Zealand use social media

Abstract

This paper explores why and how migrants use social media in different phases of the migration process, how they manage personal information on social media during migration, and whether they use libraries’ social media in any of the migration phases. An anonymous questionnaire was used to collect opinions and investigate the activities of migrant communities in New Zealand in the three above mentioned areas. The paper presents the results of a descriptive statistical analysis performed on the data. These results were categorized and presented under the following themes: demographic data, use of social media during migration, personal information management practices on social media, use of library social media during migration, issues arising from the use of social media during migration and positive impact of social media during migration.

The main findings of our research showed that in the transitioning phase migrants use social media mostly for making the decision to move. In the settling phase, social media help them to cushion the anxieties associated with a move and also help them to make an informed decision in the new country. In the settled phase, participants used social media to stay connected with family and friends in the home country. Language barriers can restrict the use of social media during the moving process. Personal information on social media is not recognized as important and is not managed in any particular way. Libraries are present in the life of migrants but more as physical spaces and services than through their social media presence. Findings from this study can be of interest to libraries and other information providers developing services for migrants in physical and digital environments.

Keywords

Immigrants libraries migration process personal information management social media

Introduction

Migration and the growth of a multicultural society are major trends in today’s globalized world (Audunson et al., 2011). There are 272 million international migrants worldwide or 3.5% of the world’s population, according to the World Migration Report (International Organization for Migration, 2019: 19). Migration is not a new concept in the professional literature, but with the ever-increasing sophistication in communication and the system of transportation worldwide, it begs for attention and further research especially in the areas of social media in the moving process and the information behaviour of migrants relating to these media. This is the thrust of this research paper.

Migration is probably best defined (in general terms) as the crossing of a spatial boundary by one or more persons involved in a change of residence. Although this definition appears to be rather simple, underlying it is a complexity of issues and a very lengthy theoretical debate (Kok, 1999: 7). Not dwelling on these theoretical issues, since it is not within the scope of the present study, it is noteworthy to mention that the key terms in the above definition which reflect the idea under consideration are ‘moving between spatial boundary’ and ‘change of residence’. These two terms interact to make migration happen. While the former describes the movement from a particular location to another, the latter points out the permanency of such a move. In this context, it happens across national boundaries. Migration is a broad term that encompasses different categories of people crossing spatial boundaries. The International Organization for Migration (2019) in its World Migration Report explains migration in the following way:

The overwhelming majority of people migrate internationally for reasons related to work, family and study – involving migration processes that largely occur without fundamentally challenging either migrants or the countries they enter. In contrast, other people leave their homes and countries for a range of compelling and sometimes tragic reasons, such as conflict, persecution and disaster. While those who have been displaced, such as refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), comprise a relatively small percentage of all migrants, they are often the most in need of assistance and support. (Part 1, 19)

The same report emphasizes that there is no universally agreed definition of migration or migrant and migration events can be defined in numerous ways, including in relation to the place of birth, citizenship, place of residence and duration of stay (2019: Part 1, 20). The terms immigration and migration are often used interchangeably and so will be the case in this paper. This paper did not specifically target refugees or any other group of migrants but reached to broader migrants’ communities in New Zealand focusing on those who experienced recent voluntary migration.

According to Ross as cited in Sinha (2005: 404), migration is geographical mobility that involves a change of residence between defined political or statistical areas, or between residential areas of different types. This very definition agrees with the former on the idea of a change of residence. Kennan et al. (2011: 193) presented a three-phase approach to settlement: transitioning, settling in, and being settled. Transitioning begins before settlers arrive where they are seeking or being given information about their new country. Settling in is the conscious effort made by a migrant to obtain information about the host country or community in a bid to assimilate their cultural, social and political ideologies. In the same vein, being settled is the stage where a migrant now understands the information landscape of the host community and is usually reflective of his/her previous settlement experiences (Kennan et al., 2011). These phases are not necessarily sequential; rather they are cyclical and iterative. The information experiences of migrants vary in each phase, and they (migrants) move from one phase to another as they develop their information practice in the host country or community and they become more connected and included in their new information landscape (Kennan et al., 2011). We used these three phases of transitioning, settling in, and being settled to distinguish between different phases of the migration process when we asked the participants in our study about their practices and attitudes.

In general, people’s propensity to move to other places depends on the perceived balance between gaining access to better life opportunities elsewhere and the need for place-bound stability (Thulin and Vilhelmson, 2014). This balance is often affected by information designed to influence the motives for migration. Such motives are often complex and linked to various drivers: people migrate to obtain a (better) job or higher income, for educational purposes, when family status changes, to strengthen social ties, to change their housing or residential environment, or, more generally, to make a major life change (Niedomysl, 2011: 845).

Recent studies have shown that social media promise an effective infrastructure for exchanging social capital in the migration networks, which brings new opportunities for individual migrants. They have deterritorialized social space that facilitates communication among geographically dispersed people in migrant networks (Dekker and Engbersen, 2014; Komito, 2011). Based on this background, this research seeks to contribute to the subject of the information behaviour of immigrants especially in the area of social media during the migration process. In this context, our interest was channelled to the potential use of social media for managing personal information in the migration process as well as the use of libraries’ social media accounts for migration purposes.

In the following sections, we will focus on related literature on the topics of (a) social media and migration and (b) use of library social media by migrants.

Related literature

Social media defined

Social media is a term that frequently occurs in everyday conversations and news. Despite their frequent use in many contexts, this concept and its contents are not clearly defined in the academic discussion (Vuori, 2011). In this study, we adopt two definitions. According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010: 60), Social media form a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content. Along similar lines, Kietzmann et al. (2011: 242) defined it as a platform which employs mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss and modify user-generated content. The definition by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) suggests a socio-technical relationship between the essential elements of social media (Mcllwaine, 2014). Kietzmann et al. (2011) extended this definition by adding a mobile-based technological component which is crucial today in social media communication.

Categorizing the types of social media in existence has been recognized as being more difficult than defining them, given that social media platforms have multiple purposes which can make single classification difficult (Vuori, 2011: 771). Most people wrongly refer to social networking sites as social media. This could be because social networking sites are more widely used. But social media are much more than social networking sites. Table 1 offers a classification of social media types. This classification suggests a plethora of social media tools within the reach of migrants.

Table 1.

Social media classification.

Social Media Tools	Description	Example
Media sharing sites	Allow users to upload, organize and share multimedia materials with people and/or selected community.	YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Flickr
Blogs/Microblogs	Allow authors to post their writings or information on the Web, hoping someone will read them.	Blogger, Twitter, Plurk, Tumblr, Weibo
Social bookmarking sites	Allow users collaboratively use tags to annotate and categorize the web content they found interesting.	Delicious, Pinterest, Digg, Foursquare
Virtual/Online Communities	Allow individuals to share specific information and interest through interactive tools on a website.	Lonely Planet, Yahoo Answers
Social networking sites	Allow individuals to build a social relationship and interest among friends and acquaintances.	Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+
Virtual worlds	Provide computer-simulated environments where people can live in a virtual world	Second Life, Active World, Onverse

Source: Adapted and modified from Ngai et al. (2015).

With these definitions and classification in mind, we further explore the literature on social media and migration.

Social media and migration

Social media have been integrated into the migration processes and influence plans and decisions to move (Thulin and Vilhelmson, 2014: 390). The information behaviour of migrants on social media can be categorized into three, namely communication (particularly communication with family and friends), information seeking and content creation (Cassar et al., 2016: 11). Evidence from numerous studies indicates that social media enhance migrants’ capacities to maintain family and kinship contacts across long distances, to create extensive personal networks, and to participate in the national debates of their home societies through transnational associations (Aricat, 2015; Komito, 2011; Park et al., 2014). Dekker and Engbersen (2014) proposed four points on the relevance of social media in the process of migration: first, they enhance the possibilities of maintaining strong ties with family and friends; second, they address weak ties that are relevant to organizing the process of migration and integration; third, they establish a new infrastructure consisting of latent ties; and fourth, they offer a rich source of insider knowledge on migration that is discrete and unofficial (Dekker and Engbersen, 2014: 403). These contributions focus more on ties of relationships and especially with the place a migrant left.

It has been proven that the use of social networking technologies enables ‘media-rich’ and resilient social groups to develop, founded on the latent monitoring of activities characteristic of face-to-face, geographically delimited communities (Komito and Bates, 2009). Even so, this is relevant in migration and makes the process less burdensome for migrants, unlike in yesteryears.

Social media are particularly useful for people that live geographically dispersed but require transnational networks to remain connected, such as migrants (Dekker and Engbersen, 2014). For this reason, communication is intrinsically linked with migration: migrants build social, economic and communication bonds between home and host countries as well as other places (Borkert et al., 2009). This link is underlined by the transport and communication technologies that facilitate migrants’ connections with their country of origin (Diminescu, 2008). Therefore, migrants use social media to communicate both locally and globally (Levitt and Jaworsky, 2007). Migrants’ use of social media can be influenced by various factors such as their proficiency in the language of the country of destination, their socio-economic background, their previous familiarity with technology and computer literacy (Cassar et al., 2016: 8).

A detailed exploration of the information behaviour of immigrants on social media has received minimal scholarly attention in the literature, apart from a few exceptions (Aricat, 2015; Borkert et al., 2018; Daniel, 2015; Deak, 2013; Dekker et al., 2016). Some of these have focused on refugees and the important role social media play in the process of migration. For example, Borkert et al. (2018: 4) call for a ‘radical shift in thinking about and researching migration in the digital age’ based on their research on digital capacities of refugees and social support via social media. They argued that technology is a vital part of establishing migration networks. Also, Alencar et al. (2019) explored how refugees used smartphones to maintain contacts with friends and family, to connect with migrant communities, to get a sense of security and to preserve memories of their migration journeys.

In the same vein, social media enable political participation. They are touted as a very important way through which citizens in diaspora connect with their home country. Evidence shows that migrants’ engagement with politics in their home country has become increasingly virtual with the advent of mobile/social media (Aricat, 2015). These media bring migrants the opportunity to update themselves on the political happenings in their home country, even as they stay away from their homeland for many years (Aricat, 2015).

Social media are also instrumental in acculturation. In a study on the acculturation of Chinese international students, Forbush and Foucault-Welles (2016) argue that common acculturative stressors such as anxiety, depression, identity confusion and feelings of being marginalized affect the chances of international students to settle in easily. They assert that for international students studying abroad, social support received from their social networks may play an especially important role in alleviating a number of the aforementioned acculturative stressors, which, in turn, may lead to more positive adaptation (Forbush and Foucault-Welles, 2016). In line with this view, Park et al. (2014) attest that the recent popularity and wide use of social networking sites (SNS) among college students provide international students with an opportunity to maintain relationships with friends and family in their home country and to communicate easily with new friends in the host country. SNS of international students’ countries of origin enable them to easily post writings and photos about their new life in the host country, in turn, staying in touch with their significant others in their home country (Park et al., 2014).

Similarly, Thulin and Vilhelmson (2014) reported that social media influence migration-related plans and decisions by affecting people’s interest in migration and choice of destination. The authors distinguish four roles played by social media in migration decision making: inspiration, screening and sorting, operational and emotional preparation, and post-processing. They conclude that online information has become almost a necessary condition for prospective migrants as traditional sources of information are replaced by virtual ones (Thulin and Vilhelmson, 2014). In the same vein, social media play a great role in the maintenance with source country and the establishment of new ties with the host country or community (Komito, 2011). Although immigrants may have difficulties accessing information sources within their new countries, they have access to transnational networks (Caidi et al., 2010), empowered by the ubiquity of social media (Collin and Quan-Haase, 2014). Examples of transnational ties include: collecting pre-immigration information from family and friends who have migrated, providing and receiving employment and other referrals from individuals abroad, and other information from and for family and friends abroad (Caidi et al., 2010).

Use of social media during the migration process

There is a thin line between the information behaviour of migrants on social media as explored in the foregoing paragraphs and the use of social media pre, during and post-migration phases. There is an obvious overlap between the two and we have taken this into consideration in the instrument developed for data collection.

When information about settlement services, housing, employment opportunities, health or education is not easily available to newcomers, navigation through the information environment is daunting. Because immigrants often lack the basic information, as well as social, civic and economic capital to function fully in their new country, theirs is more often a matter of survival than full participation and inclusion (Caidi et al., 2010). This is where social media comes in handy in each phase of migration – pre-migrant, post-migrant and settled-migrant (Hiller and Franz, 2004).

Social media are increasingly popular channels of information on which migrants base their decisions on whether to migrate and the destinations where to settle (Dekker et al., 2018). More specifically in this direction, Thulin and Vilhelmson (2014) suggested in a study that some respondents use social media with the explicit aim of virtually getting to know and becoming familiar with new places, for example as support when trying to incorporate new places into plans and considerations. This is usually the first step in the migration process (Dekker and Engbersen, 2014). They are also used to mentally prepare and reduce anxieties related to the imminent move for example by learning more about the destination and becoming somewhat ‘virtually familiar’ with the place in advance. This is particularly common when moving to relatively unfamiliar and distant places (Thulin and Vilhelmson, 2014).

In a study, Cassar et al. (2016) reported that respondents attested that the types of information they seek on social media are those related to daily life and services. Other respondents in the same study look for information on products/services, laws/rights, employment, accommodation and education. There are also instances of the use of social media for personal information management during the process of migration. We highlight this in the succeeding subsection.

Personal information management and social media

It is noteworthy that the research in the area of the information behaviour of migrants on social media is still in its youth, and more so in the context of personal information management which is a discipline that has attracted renewed scholarly interest. This is an obvious gap in the literature which the current study wishes to explore. In the context of migration, managing personal information can have a significant impact on migrant. Personal information management (PIM) can be defined as:

the practice and the study of the activities a person performs in order to acquire or create, store, organize, maintain, retrieve, use, and distribute information in each of its many forms (paper and digital, in emails, files, web pages, text messages, tweets, posts, etc.) as needed to meet life’s many goals (every day and long term, work-related and not) and to fulfil life’s many roles and responsibilities (as a parent, spouse, friend, employee, member of the community, etc.). (Jones et al., 2017: 3584)

Migration adds an additional layer of complexity to this because the value of personal information and documents and reasons for keeping them safe might be seen in a different light. That change of perception, in turn, affects the PIM activities a person performs, such as deciding what to bring and what to discard, what to digitize, what to share with others, etc. In addition to that, PIM awareness and practices change in the online social context. As Capra and Teevan (2012) noted, managing personal information that can be seen or used by others presents different challenges than managing information solely for personal use.

Use and participation in LAM social media by migrants

Libraries, archives and museums (LAM) have multiple roles in the lives of migrants; as physical and virtual acculturation sites and as sources of information relevant for migration experience (Audunson et al., 2011; Khoir et al., 2015). Many LAM institutions offer programmes designed for migrants to assist with the integration into a new country or a host community. Johnston and Audunson’s (2017) study examined the potential of conversation-based programmes in public libraries to support immigrants’ political integration. Khoir et al. (2017) argue that social capital is an important contributor to immigrants’ settlement in a multicultural society and emphasize the mutual relationship between a public library and immigrants in the formation of a reliable social asset. Research shows how immigrants perceive and use libraries, for example Branyon (2017) concludes from her research that a library offers a place for observing the culture of the new country from a distance to active participation and a safe place as well as support in many areas of everyday life, such as making friendships, learning a new language and finding employment.

The quest to satisfy information need is often the primary motivation for the consultation of libraries, archives and museums by migrants. Many of the general information needs migrants have as a group or individuals include categories such as housing, employment, education, transportation, banking/finance, taxes and health. Within each of these categories lie sub-categories of information needs that relate to the migrant as part of a group and also individually (Shoham and Strauss, 2007).

Libraries, archives and museums’ social media have the potential to create information grounds for migrants, especially when it comes to their use as acculturation sites where individuals can participate in formal and informal information sharing. Information grounds are defined as synergistic ‘environment[s] temporarily created when people come together for a singular purpose but from whose behaviour emerges a social atmosphere that fosters the spontaneous and serendipitous sharing of information’ (Pettigrew, 1999: 811 cited in Bronstein, 2017). Fisher and Naumer’s (2006) concept of information grounds explains that social interaction is a primary activity at ‘information grounds’ and that information flow is a by-product. Narayan et al. (2013) proposed that social media can be seen as an information ground, mapping the characteristics of social media to the seven propositions of information ground theory.

Social media have been widely adopted in libraries for the promotion of library services, community/relationship building, and integration, marketing and outreach (Bosque et al., 2017). This contemporary tool presents a very great advantage in library services to migrants. However, little is known about the use and participation of migrants in the social media created by libraries, archives and museums. This is an area the present study seeks to explore.

While bearing in mind the related literature presented above, this study will focus on the information behaviour of immigrants when using social media during the migration process, specifically, personal information management on social media related to the migration process and the use of libraries’ social media for migration purposes.

Methodology

Study objectives and research questions

This study aims to investigate why and how migrants use social media in the process of migration. With this aim in mind, we used a survey to collect opinions and investigate activities in three main areas: reasons for using social media during migration, managing personal information on social media during migration, and using libraries’ social media.

Research questions that guided this study were:

RQ1: What is the purpose of using social media during migration?

RQ2: Does the use of social media change depending on the migration phase?

RQ3: How is personal information on social media managed during migration?

RQ4: Do migrants use libraries’ social media during migration and for what purpose?

Data collection and analysis

We used the quantitative research technique to address these research questions, bearing in mind that it is an approach for testing objective theories by examining the relationships among variables. These variables, in turn, can be measured, typically on instruments, so that numbered data can be analysed using statistical procedures (Creswell, 2013).

Data were collected through an anonymous survey. A questionnaire was designed in Qualtrics software and a post with the link to the questionnaire was distributed through the social media accounts of migrants’ communities living in New Zealand. The survey lasted from September 2018 to April 2019. New Zealand migrants’ communities were chosen as a sample based on the authors’ understanding of the New Zealand migration context, but also because the New Zealand migrant population is increasing in size and facing challenges relevant to be presented to the international audience. Statistics show that New Zealand has a population of 4.9 million with many ethnicities represented and is seen as a multicultural society. The net migration rate was 11.4 per 1000 people in the year ended June 2019, with annual net migration of about 56,000 reaching historically high levels (StatsNZ, 2019). While we did reach out to as many migrant communities in New Zealand that had social media accounts as we could find, we did not aim for a representative sample of the entire immigrant population in New Zealand due to the exploratory nature of this study.

The questionnaire consisted of 16 questions about the following topics: participants’ profile, use of social media during migration, personal information practices in regard to social media, use of libraries’ social media and issues that arise from the use of social media during the migration process. Of these, 15 questions were close-ended with an option to comment under ‘other’. The last question about the most important role of social media in migration was open-ended. We designed the questionnaire in such a way that any migrant respondent who did not use a social medium would automatically skip to the end of the questionnaire which we did not use in the analysis. The open-ended comments were analysed using pattern clusters to aggregate the themes and concepts that emerged from the data.

In the survey we used three phases of migration, transitioning, settling in, and settled (Kennan et al., 2011) to differentiate responses about each phase. We explained this to the participants:

transitioning (transitioning begins before settlers arrived, when they are seeking or being given information about their new country);

settling in (settling in is the conscious effort made by a migrant to obtain information about the host country or community in a bid to assimilate their cultural, social and political ideologies), and;

settled (being settled is the stage where a migrant now understands the information landscape of the host community and is usually reflective of his/her previous settlement experiences).

This research has been approved by the ethical committee of the researchers’ university.

There were162 respondents to the questions that were posed. After data collection using an online questionnaire platform (Qualtrics), the data were exported and cleaned with SPSS.

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is the set of software programs that are combined together in a single package. The basic application of this program is to analyse scientific data related to social science. This data can be used for market research, surveys, data mining, etc. (Thomes, 2018)

On assessment, the data were found to be missing at random (MAR). This was determined using Little’s MCAR test, p= .717. Since the p-value is greater than .05, we can confidently assume that the data are missing at random. Based on this assumption, an Expectation-Maximization technique (EM) was used to replace the missing data. Subsequently, data were descriptively analysed using mean and percentages. The Likert-type questions were analysed with mean. This was done to give room for a focused report of the results without confounding the items on the questionnaire. Also, percentages were considered useful in the presentation of the results of multichoice questions.

Results

The results of the statistical analysis performed on the data are presented in this section. For the purpose of clarity, these results were categorized and presented under the following headings: demographic data, use of social media during migration, personal information management practices on social media, use of library social media during migration, issues arising from the use of social media during migration and positive impact of social media during migration.

Demographic data (participants’ profile)

The result of gender shows that male and female participants were 55% and 45% respectively. The participants aged 25–34 recorded the highest response of 59%. This could possibly mean that people within this age bracket travel more and could potentially be avid users of social media. Second to it is those aged 35–44 (19%).

Also, on the question of how long since the last migration, 30% reported that their last move was less than a year ago while 19% and 17% said 1–2 and 3–4 years respectively. Responding to the question which sought to ascertain the number of times that they have moved, only 33% said that they had moved more than once in the process. A substantial number of respondents (67%) said none.

On the subject of which social media migrants used, a good majority noted that they used social networking sites (81%), instant messaging (75%) and media sharing sites (64%). However, there are also other social media that these migrants reported that they did not use. These are virtual online communities (90% said no), social bookmarking sites (89% said no) and blogs and publishing sites (71% said no). It is a known fact that social media sites are popular among migrants as they are a quick go-to for connections and references (Blumenstock and Tan, 2016). But the revelation of instant messaging and media sharing sites are certainly important facts worth taking on board as these could have an implication for the way libraries (especially public libraries) streamline their services tailored for migrant communities.

Correspondingly, response to the question of how much time migrants spent on social media per day shows that 34% spent 3–4 hours whereas 32% spent 1–2 hours. Aggregating these two results, we can say that migrants do spend time on social media. This could be as a result of the need to maintain previous connections or to establish new ones. We explored this idea below.

Use of social media during migration

This section features activities migrants do with social media during the migration process. The result is presented in line with the three phases of migration: transition, settling in, and settled. These results show that during the transitioning phase, migrants use social media mostly for making the decision to move. This recorded the highest mean score of 1.62. Understandably, the decision to move requires that one has sufficient information to proceed. That social media are used to gather this information is an interesting angle to study when considering other Internet-based platforms options available to them. Table 2 illustrates further.

Table 2.

Migrants’ perception on use of social media in the transitioning phase.

Transitioning Phase	M	SD
1. Social media are useful to me in making a decision to move.	1.62	.623
2. Through social media, I learn about a prospective host country or community.	1.39	.572
3. Social media help me feel informed about the place I am moving to.	1.39	.606
4. Social media help me to connect with new people.	1.29	.452

The results also show that social media are handy for migrants in the settling phase. They help them to cushion the anxieties associated with a move and also help them to make an informed decision in the new country. Both recorded a mean score of 1.57. It would be worth exploring in future research the specific social medium that migrants think is useful in this important phase of their migration.

In the same vein, respondents attested that social media helped them to find out about hobbies, topics and places of interest in their new country. However, we note that the item indicating that social media help migrants to communicate with family and friends in their home country recorded the lowest mean (1.11). This is assumed to be the primary reason for the use of social media (Komito, 2011) especially for migrants who want to maintain contact with people back in their home country. Table 3 presents these results.

Table 3.

Migrants’ perception on use of social media in the settling phase.

Settling Phase	M	SD
1. Social media help me cushion the anxieties associated with moving to a new place.	1.57	.631
2. Social media help me make informed decisions about everyday life in a new country.	1.57	.641
3. Social media help me connect with new people.	1.31	.497
4. Social media help me stay informed about the place/places I moved from.	1.24	.496

A follow-up question on actual or intention to use social media reveal that 50% indicated that they used them to find out about the lifestyle of people in the new country as well as general enquiries about the country during the transitioning phase. In the settling phase, 66% said that they used social media to stay connected with family and friends. This contradicts the response given in the previous question. Though this item featured under the settled phase, we might interpret it to mean that they prefer to maintain contact with family and friends during the settling phase. In the settled phase (Table 4), a majority attested that they used social media to stay connected with family and friends in the home country (71%). This validates the opinion that they have misunderstood the question previously referred. Overall, migrants deploy social media to maintain social contacts and relationships.

Table 4.

Migrants’ perception on use of social media in the settled phase.

Settled Phase	M	SD
1. Social media help me to find out about hobbies, topics and places of interest in my new country	1.24	.484
2. Through social media, I follow and learn about government activities in my home country	1.19	.433
3. Social media help me to keep in touch with hobbies, topics and places of interest in my home country	1.18	.429
4. Social media help me communicate with family and friends at home.	1.11	.339

The comments participants left in an open-ended question on the positive impact of the use of social media during the migration process also support the above-presented results. Participants commented that social media had a positive impact on building relationships among migrants, both in the host and home countries, made it easier to find information, enabled collaboration and networking among migrant communities and host communities, and helped with language learning, acculturation and integration. The participants’ comments also indicated that social media significantly helped with migration anxieties. The comments were pooled and categorized into the following themes: relationship building, information retrieval, collaboration/networking, political participation, leisure, easing migration anxieties, language learning and cultural/locational adjustments.

Personal information management practices on social media

We note that of all the items listed in the response for the participants, they only indicated that they updated their personal information on their account profile. This response was attested to by only 39% of the total sample; 22% also said that they made back-up copies of important personal information and documents that they had on their social media accounts. Responses to other items were less than 25% (Table 5). This is a cause for concern. It could directly mean that migrants do not know how to or care about the management of their personal information. This has multiple implications which will be discussed later.

Table 5.

Managing personal information on social media during migration.

	Yes	No
1. I updated my personal information on my accounts’ profiles (such as location).	39%	61%
2. I haven’t done anything about it.	25%	75%
3. I made back-up copies of important personal information and documents that I had on my social media accounts.	22%	78%
4. I uploaded personal information and documents to my social media accounts.	17%	83%
5. I opened new accounts on social media relevant to my prospective host country prior to arriving.	12%	88%
6. I deleted accounts on social media related to my home country that I don’t intend to use anymore.	7%	93%
7. I shared passwords with a family member and/or a friend in case I could not access my account(s).	6%	94%

Use of library social media during migration

On the subject of social media and the library, only 39% of the respondents agreed they were aware of library social media accounts both at home and in host countries. However, 60% attested that they visited the library. This could either mean that the migrants do not care about the library social media accounts or that the said accounts have not been adequately publicized to the migrant communities: 19% participate in the activities of library social media, while 81% do not (Table 6). Interestingly, a question on what the migrants prefer and expect from the library on social media (Table 7) suggest that they are comfortable with frequent posts from the library (M= 1.81). Related to that is that they would like to get news updates about political activities in their host country on social media (M= 1.55). These are important issues that require strategic management decision by the library. Implications will be further discussed.

Table 6.

Ways of using a library social media account.

	Yes	No
1. I make inquiries about a book, magazine, journal, etc. on social media.	19%	81%
2. I use a library social media account to learn about library events.	12%	88%
3. I use a library social media account to learn about cultural events in my home country.	7%	93%
4. I use a library social media account to keep track of cultural events in my host country.	6%	94%
5. Library social media serve as a meeting place for me to contact other immigrants.	4%	96%
6. I participate in a group chat set up by the library.	4%	96%
7. I use a library social media account to recommend appropriate material for the library.	4%	96%
8. I serve as a volunteer using a social media account set up by the library.	2%	98%
9. I commend librarians on a library social media account.	1%	99%

Table 7.

Expectations from library social media.

	M	SD
1. I am comfortable with a frequent post from the library.	1.81	.469
2. I will like to get news updates about political activities in my host country on social media.	1.55	.514
3. I expect the library to facilitate contact and collaboration among immigrants on social media.	1.51	.482
4. I want constant updates about job opportunities available in my host country.	1.49	.551
5. I will like to learn about current trends from the library on social media.	1.43	.479
6. I expect the library to advertise cultural materials on social media.	1.40	.430

Issues arising from the use of social media during migration

The respondents were keen to voice their concerns about the key issue on the use of social media during migration (Table 8). Notably, the highest mean score shows that respondents indicated that active social media use was limited to men in their home country (M= 2.84). In subsequent studies, we hope to explore the potential influence of gender in the use of social media during the migration process. But we also affirm that that there is a unique role of social media in each phases of migration. Second, they attested to government restrictions on the use of social media (M= 2.83) which invariably influenced the way they used it in their host country. In the same vein, some indicated that they found it difficult to use social media during the moving process due to language barriers (M= 2.58).

Table 8.

Issues or concerns that arise from the use of social media during the migration process.

	M	SD
1. Active social media use is limited to men in my home country.	2.84	.350
2. There is government restriction on the use of certain social media in my home country.	2.83	.378
3. I find it difficult to use social media during the moving process due to language barriers.	2.58	.535
4. I prefer not to use social media due to my personal convictions.	2.50	.584
5. I don’t fully understand the customs of a country represented on social media.	2.28	.549
6. I’m afraid I might unintentionally do or say something culturally inappropriate.	2.09	.646
7. I have doubts that the information on social media may not be a true representation of reality.	1.75	.651

Discussion

Using the three phases of the migration process (transitioning, settling in, and being settled) as explained by Keenan et al. (2011) was useful because it prompted participants to reflect on their experiences in a more organized manner and distinguish between specific stages in the migration process. The main findings of our research showed that in the transitioning phase migrants used social media mostly for making a decision to move. In the settling phase, social media helped them to cushion the anxieties associated with a move and also helped them to make an informed decision in the new country. In the settled phase, participants used social media to stay connected with family and friends in the home country. Overall, our study confirms that migrants use social media primarily to maintain social contacts and relationships. These findings agree with Dekker and Engbersen’s (2014) findings on the use of social media for maintaining, enhancing and establishing ties with family and friends during migration and with Dekker et al.’s (2018) statement that social media are increasingly popular channels of information on which migrants base their decisions on whether to migrate and where to settle. The reason for this can be that social media offer insight into first-hand experience of migration, more than any other source of information, and enable migrants to easily relate to experiences of others as well as to establish contacts and ask questions prior to making a decision to move. As one of the participants commented, social media can give ‘a bird’s eye view of what to expect in the host country’.

As Cassar et al. (2016: 8) noted, ‘migrants’ use of social media can be influenced by various factors such as their proficiency in the language of the country of destination, their socio-economic background, their previous familiarity with technology and computer literacy’. Our findings also showed that language barriers can restrict the use of social media during the moving process. Such language barriers can manifest as not understanding the language of the host country, or its dialects and slang, therefore not being able to fully comprehend information presented through the social media. Alongside that barrier, there could be a lack of confidence in communicating with others through social media as a consequence of lower speaking/writing skills. On the other hand, it is worth noting that social media offer a safe place and relative anonymity allowing migrants to explore language and culture of the host country. One of the comments given in the open-ended question on the benefits of using social media during migration supports this, ‘Being able to freely explore, without consequences and judgement, people, culture, places, or anything in general’. Additionally, our findings noted the potential influence of restrictions on the use of social media in participants’ home countries, for example social media are limited to men, or government restrictions on the use of social media.

To the best of our knowledge, the literature review did not identify previous works about PIM practices of migrants on social media during migration, therefore, we cannot compare our findings with previous research. The main finding of our study in this area is that managing and preserving information on social media is not perceived as important nor have participants invested significant effort into it. A reason for that could lie in the fact that most of the participants did not upload any relevant personal information or documents to social media accounts, hence not having a need to back up or share access details. The only significant effort made was to update one’s location. While deleting social media accounts in their home countries that participants do not intend to use anymore is not surprising and can be explained by not being a priority, it is interesting to note that a majority of the participants did not open a new account on social media relevant to their host countries prior to arriving.

Only 19% of participants in this study said that they participated in libraries’ social media activities and that is a significantly lower number compared to 60% who visit a library. This opens an opportunity for a more proactive presence of libraries’ social media channels in the information environment of migrants. This argument, when supported by findings from the open-ended question on the most positive use of social media in the migration process, agrees with Branyon’s (2017) conclusion that a library offers a safe place for observing the culture of the new country from a distance until ready for active participation. Public libraries can have a significant role in this sense as public spaces and services offering access to information and events that help with integration. Similarly, university libraries can play a similar role in the lives of international students and immigrants among the teaching staff. Finally, it should be noted that migrants’ stories and histories shape the heritage and the history of a host country. Therefore, national libraries and all other types that collect national and local history would benefit from maintaining active contacts with migrant communities.

Conclusion

The study presented in this paper explored why and how migrants use social media in different phases of the migration process, how they manage personal information on social media during migration, and whether they use libraries’ social media in any of the migration phases. The reason for bringing these three aspects together in the research came from the assumption that social media have an important role in the information environment of migrants and so do PIM practices associated with using social media during migration. In addition to that assumption, libraries as physical and virtual places and services, including their social media, are also considered an important part of the migrants’ information environment. These assumptions were based on a perceived gap in previous research indicating the need to look at social media as a layer of the information environment of migrants in which migrants can have an active role by managing their personal information during migration. Libraries with their physical and virtual presence in the lives of migrants shape that information environment. Based on the findings from our study, we offer two main recommendations:

Libraries of both home and host countries should seek ways to be present in immigrants’ and expatriates’ communities. Libraries’ social media can be a valuable instrument in such endeavours.

Social media, especially in the early stages of migration, offer migrants an opportunity to be anonymous and observe societal norms and culture before fully interacting with them. Presence in that environment can be a valuable opportunity to reach new users for libraries who are traditionally seen as reliable sources of information and interpreters of tacit knowledge about a culture or a country.

The continuous presence of home country libraries and their social media networks in the lives of migrants has a potential to benefit migrants by giving access to information about home countries, keeping connections and helping migrants not just to stay informed, but also to nurture the feeling of belonging. In turn, for libraries, this means having patrons beyond the physical borders of a country.

Such presence in immigrant and expatriate communities is also an invaluable opportunity for libraries to have access to information and collections that inevitably shape the culture and heritage of many host and home countries facing migration of their population.

Management of personal information on social media requires promotion of positive attitudes and proactive practices.

Information on social media can be very unique and not recorded elsewhere in migrants’ personal collections of data and documents. Its storytelling potential is extremely valuable for the narrative of migrants’ lives. The attitude of indifference can have a significant impact on personal digital archiving practices and on preserving personal heritage for the future. Therefore, libraries and other organizations with expertise and interest in PIM can bring the attention of the public to these matters, and offer valuable advice to both individuals using social media accounts and those designing features that support managing personal information on social media accounts.

This study was exploratory in nature and its main limitation comes from a relatively small sample compared to the entire migrant population in New Zealand. Also, there is space for a more complex study comparing the influence of gender, culture and other general factors on responses that participants gave to specific questions. Findings on managing personal information on social media during migration call for a more detailed investigation and are definitely an area of potential future research, especially if methods that require active participation and co-construction of knowledge by participants are used, such as action research.

Findings from this study can be of use to those practitioners developing library services for migrants in physical and digital environments. They can also be of interest to those designing social media features that enable and promote personal information management practices.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iDs

Kingsley T. Ihejirika

Maja Krtalic

Author biographies

Kingsley T. Ihejirika is a PhD student of Information Systems at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He holds a Masters in Library Science from the University of Nigeria. His research interests are in the areas of marketing, social media, information literacy, and user engagement.

Maja Krtalić is a senior lecturer in Information Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She holds a PhD from the University of Zadar, Croatia. Areas of Maja’s current research interest include (a) managing the preservation, presentation and use of cultural heritage, in both physical and digital environments, and (b) information behaviour and personal information management.

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