“The Journey of Relocation,” A Reflective Autoethnography, Digital Story Telling, and Netnography: Experiences of South Asian Immigrants in Canada
type: CreativeWork
description: Abstract by: Sarah AlamThis study, “The Journey of Relocation,” A Reflective Autoethnography, Digital Storytelling, and Netnography: Experiences of South Asian Immigrants in Canada, explores the multifaceted narratives of South Asian migrants navigating cultural, social, and systemic landscapes in Canada. By employing a hybrid qualitative methodology, the study integrates three distinct yet complementary approaches: reflective autoethnography to examine the researcher’s personal migration journey, digital storytelling to amplify migrant voices through multimedia narratives, and netnography to analyze online communities where South Asian diasporas negotiate identity, belonging, and resistance. This study investigates the complex realities of South Asian migrants in Canada amid rising anti-immigration sentiments post-COVID-19 and systemic inequities rooted in colonial legacies and shifting immigration policies. By combining reflective autoethnography, digital storytelling, and netnography, the study bridges personal, communal, and digital narratives to explore how South Asian individuals navigate cultural belonging, systemic marginalization, and the formation of intersectional identities in a sociopolitical climate increasingly hostile to racialized migrants. The research foregrounds the lived experiences of the researcher to reveal how displacement, acculturation, and labor inequities intersect with resilience strategies such as cultural preservation, digital activism, and transnational kinship. It critiques Canada’s multiculturalism as a contested ideal, exposing disparities between institutional rhetoric and migrants’ encounters with racism, bureaucratic exclusion, and media-driven homogenization of “visible minorities.” By contextualizing present-day struggles within historical frameworks, including colonial histories, post-independence South Asian geopolitics, and Canada’s exclusionary immigration past, the study highlights how intergenerational trauma and the du…
abstract: Abstract by: Sarah AlamThis study, “The Journey of Relocation,” A Reflective Autoethnography, Digital Storytelling, and Netnography: Experiences of South Asian Immigrants in Canada, explores the multifaceted narratives of South Asian migrants navigating cultural, social, and systemic landscapes in Canada. By employing a hybrid qualitative methodology, the study integrates three distinct yet complementary approaches: reflective autoethnography to examine the researcher’s personal migration journey, digital storytelling to amplify migrant voices through multimedia narratives, and netnography to analyze online communities where South Asian diasporas negotiate identity, belonging, and resistance. This study investigates the complex realities of South Asian migrants in Canada amid rising anti-immigration sentiments post-COVID-19 and systemic inequities rooted in colonial legacies and shifting immigration policies. By combining reflective autoethnography, digital storytelling, and netnography, the study bridges personal, communal, and digital narratives to explore how South Asian individuals navigate cultural belonging, systemic marginalization, and the formation of intersectional identities in a sociopolitical climate increasingly hostile to racialized migrants. The research foregrounds the lived experiences of the researcher to reveal how displacement, acculturation, and labor inequities intersect with resilience strategies such as cultural preservation, digital activism, and transnational kinship. It critiques Canada’s multiculturalism as a contested ideal, exposing disparities between institutional rhetoric and migrants’ encounters with racism, bureaucratic exclusion, and media-driven homogenization of “visible minorities.” By contextualizing present-day struggles within historical frameworks, including colonial histories, post-independence South Asian geopolitics, and Canada’s exclusionary immigration past, the study highlights how intergenerational trauma and the du…
author: ALAM, SARAH
keywords: Anti-immigration sentiments, Capitalism, Colonialism, Decolonial Thought, Imperialism, South Asian Diaspora Studies
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
date published: 2025-10
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:28:05Z
provider: University of Toronto
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Toronto

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/1807/150567