Migrant Content Creators as Actors of Transnational Education on Social Media

Abstract

This paper discusses the role and motivations of migrants who create content about educational opportunities abroad and distribute it on social media platforms. Following a digital ethnography, this exploratory case study focuses on three young Brazilian women from lower socioeconomic classes who migrated to Germany to pursue formal education. Having identified a demand for information about such pathways, they started systematically compiling and circulating information about educational opportunities in Germany and gathered thousands of followers. Our analysis shows that their engagement in information sharing is based on solidarity and mutual support, paired with a personal enjoyment of social media use as well as expectations of future payoffs. We argue that their focus on vocational education and training highlights that the concept of transnational education is applicable beyond university degrees and that by circulating information about how to access those levels of education, these content creators contribute to the transnationalisation of education.