The role of information in the settlement experiences of refugee students

Abstract

We conducted a pilot study to explore refugee students' access to and use of information during the settlement process. Using arts-based elicitation and semi-structured interview techniques, we probed the information world of a refugee student studying in Canada. Our findings begin to identify the scope and variety of information sources that students consult at various stages of settlement and their utility. Our continued work in this area seeks to assist the Student Refugee Program (SRP) on our campus to advocate for and meet the information needs of refugee students by understanding what information is needed, when it is needed, and how to provide optimal access to it.

Seeing information: Visual methods as entry points to information practices

“…Linked to social network theory, mapping has its origins in Sonnenwald's (1999) information horizon methodology and has since been used with a variety of high school (Hultgren, 2009;Rivano Eckerdal, 2013) and college-aged students (Sonnenwald et al, 2001;Tsai, 2010Tsai, , 2012 in Sweden and in the United States, public library users in the United States (Copeland and Agosto, 2012), immigrants to Canada (Allard, 2015) as well as in a modified version with internet users (Savolainen and Kari, 2004), environmental activists (Savolainen, 2007) and archaeological professionals in Finland and Sweden (Huvila, 2009). Since these early beginnings, information horizon methodology has also been extended to form the basis of the information world mapping framework (Greyson, 2013;Greyson et al, 2017;Martzoukou, 2017;Shankar et al, 2016). Combining photovoice (explored in the next section) with relational mapping and information horizons methods, information world mapping was designed to afford the young parents in Greyson's Canadian study greater control over their information source diagrams while also emphasising a broader range of information activities (Greyson et al, 2017).…”

The role of information in the migration experience of young Polish women in the UK

“…Previous research suggests that migrants may have distinct information behaviours, such as preferring interpersonal sources (Khoir et al, 2015, Caidi et al, 2010, Kennan et al, 2011, Ryan et al, 2008 or seeking out connections based on shared ethnicity, common interests or simply feeling oneself to be in a minority (Fisher et al, 2007). These information needs and behaviours have been examined intensively for refugees (Lamb, 2007, Melnyk, 2017, Nekesa Akullo and Odong, 2017, Shankar et al, 2016, Lloyd and Wilkinson, 2017, Lloyd, 2014, Lloyd et al, 2013, Lloyd and Wilkinson, 2016, Lloyd, 2016 but few studies have been undertaken regarding highly skilledeconomic migrants in general, and even fewer addressing the Eastern European population in the UK. With the UK's decision to leave the EU and the associated focus on migration rights and patterns, examination of this community's information behaviour around their migratory experience becomes even more timely.…”

Information world mapping: A participatory arts-based elicitation method for information behavior interviews

“…A minority of participants expressed shame that they could not write well, and, despite researcher reassurance, these participants' maps were often sparsely populated. Further exploration (see Shankar et al, 2016) is needed into the benefits and challenges of using IWM with specific populations, and best practices for adapting the exercise to be culturally and linguistically accessible.…”