Social Media Practices and Archival Traces of Migration to Australia

Project description

This project will use the Australian Internet Observatory (AIO) as a central tool to investigate how migrant communities in Australia use social media to negotiate belonging, identity and community. By working with research participants to ask them to donate data about their online experiences the project will examine how social media, search and content recommendation constructs migrants within Australian, settler and diasporic identities. Social media platforms are now vital spaces where migrants maintain transnational ties, share cultural narratives, and engage with both home and host societies, and the automated models of platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube position migrants in transnational flows of content The AIO provides a unique infrastructure for capturing, storing, and analysing data from these platforms in ways that are ethically robust and suitable for academic research. The project will combine this digital data environment with archival and ethnographic research, creating a multi-layered understanding of migration that links the present to the past. Online ethnography and data donation methods, supported by the AIO, will enable the collection of material on how migrants interact with digital platforms and how platforms’ automated models profile and categorise them, and shape their practices of representation, cultural expression, and community-making. Archival sources and oral histories will situate these digital practices in relation to earlier patterns of mobility, identity, and belonging, creating opportunities to track continuities and transformations across time. The suggested focus is on Indian and Anglo-Indian migrants to Australia, whose long histories of mobility and settlement provide strong archival and community bases for study. However, applicants are also encouraged to propose case studies relating to other migrant groups, enabling comparative insights into Australia’s diverse diasporic landscape. By placing the AIO at the centre of its methodology while combining it with archival and ethnographic approaches, the project will contribute both substantive knowledge and methodological innovation. It will advance interdisciplinary understandings of migration, diaspora, and digital media, while also demonstrating the value of integrating big data infrastructures with community-based and historical research.

Outcomes

The project is expected to produce new insights into the relationship between migration, social media practices and community formation in Australia, and how the automated models of digital platforms shape the cultural experience of migrants. Outcomes may include comparative case studies of migrant social media use, archival and oral history analyses of migration histories and methodological innovations in combining digital ethnography with archival research. The research will contribute to scholarship on migration and diaspora, digital media studies and social inclusion.

Essential capabilities

Skilled in qualitative research (e.g. ethnography, oral history). Understanding the theories and discussions surrounding migration and diaspora studies.

Desireable capabilities

Familiar with digital methods (e.g. online ethnography, using digital tools for data collection, interview techniques including scrollbacks, and analysis of digital cultural material including using data visualisation tools). Ability to work with archival sources or community records, including historical documents.

Expected qualifications (Course/Degrees etc.)

Applicants should hold a master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline such as anthropology, sociology, migration studies, media studies, history, cultural studies, or related fields. Prior training in qualitative methods is required, and willingness to develop digital research skills is expected.