Assisting International Migrants with Everyday Information Seeking: From the Providers’ Lens

Yongle Zhang, Ge Gao

Abstract: International migrants face difficulties obtaining information to improve quality of life and well-being in their host country. Prior research indicates that international migrants often seek information from their co-national contacts. The downside of this practice is a small-world clustering, hindering the information seekers’ social adaptation. In our research, we investigated the ongoing practices and future opportunities to connect international migrants with those beyond their co-national contacts. Our work focuses on information providers’ perspectives, which complements previous studies that pay exclusive attention to the information seekers. We conducted in-depth interviews with 21 participants who had assisted fulfilling the information needs of migrants to the United States. Some participants were migrants from different home countries than the information seekers, whereas the rest were U.S. nationals. Our data reveals how participants dealt with language barriers, overcame knowledge disparities, and calibrated their commitment as information providers. Based on our findings, we discuss directions for future information and communication technology design that can facilitate international migrants’ daily information seeking, and accounts for information providers’ needs and concerns.

External IDs:doi:10.1007/978-3-031-57867-0_26