“The Journey of Relocation,” A Reflective Autoethnography, Digital Story Telling, and Netnography: Experiences of South Asian Immigrants in Canada

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 duality of “home” shape migrant agency. Challenging gaps in diaspora scholarship, this work prioritizes subaltern voices through migrant-centered methodologies, interrogating how anti-immigration discourses disproportionately impact South Asians economically, socially, and culturally. It also examines digital spaces as sites of resistance and solidarity, where diasporas reclaim narratives erased by mainstream media. Beyond academia, this thesis aims to empower prospective South Asian migrants with critical insights into systemic barriers while advocating for policy reforms that address intersectional inequities. Ultimately, it reimagines migration as a nonlinear, contested journey of adaptation, a dynamic interplay of loss, survival, and reclamation in the pursuit of belonging. Keywords: South Asian migrants, Diaspora studies, Anti-immigration sentiments, Systemic marginalization, Intersectional identity, Cultural preservation, Colonial legacies, imperialism, capitalism, decolonial lens,

Department dc:contributor.department

Social Justice Education

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• ALAM, SARAH

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Wane, Njoki

• Anti-immigration sentiments
• Capitalism
• Colonialism
• Decolonial Thought
• Imperialism
• South Asian Diaspora Studies

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1807/150567

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/150567