Living 'Here' and 'There': Exploring the Transnational Information Practices of Newcomers from the Philippines to Winnipeg

This study examines how new immigrants from the Philippines to Winnipeg, arriving through the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP), identify, use, and share information during the migration process and upon arrival to Canada. Using a qualitative and exploratory approach, this study applies a transnational lens to this area of research to make explicit the detailed activities and outcomes of newcomer information practices, in particular drawing out the dimensions and implications of newcomers' participation within and across local and global social networks, translocal information landscapes, and across their settlement trajectories. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with 14 provincial nominees, this study identifies eight settlement-information phases that locate respondents' information practices across their settlement trajectories as they migrated to Winnipeg. These phases include: Deciding to apply to the MPNP; Applying to the MPNP; Preparing to depart the Philippines; Preparing to arrive to Winnipeg; Arrival and orientation to Winnipeg; Getting started in Winnipeg; Building a "better life" in Winnipeg; and, Maintaining connections to the Philippines. Based on these findings I identify a process of translocal meaning making that describes the manner by which study respondents came to make sense of and operate within the Winnipeg information landscape. This process describes how respondents constructed meaning as they migrated and settled in Winnipeg, encountering and incorporating diverse, complex, and often contradictory information and information resources into their daily lives. This study offers a unique perspective on migrants' information practices, recognizing how deeply embedded and intertwined are settlement activities within information practices, and acknowledging the fluidity of individuals' relationship to information and the knowledge(s) it produces. Both challenging and extending notions of information practice, this study calls for additional research that examines how contexts of transition and travel require distinct lenses and tools to capture the information practices of migrant populations in transition.