‘There’s always opportunities to learn’: Immigrant-origin youth’s use and understanding of social media for civic education in the year 2020

Abstract

Immigrant-origin youth are a large and growing segment of the US population. As immigrant-origin youth engage in critical civic issues within and beyond the United States, they may use social media to educate themselves and their communities while drawing upon a transnational context and experiences resisting xenophobic rhetoric and policy. Using a multi-method qualitative approach, we conducted thematic analysis to explore over 2200 Twitter (now known as ‘X’) posts and 11 interviews from a racially/ethnically diverse cohort of 37 immigrant-origin young adults in the United States who posted about political and social issues between January and November of 2020. Guided by Allen and Kidd’s framework for civic education, we identified ways in which immigrant-origin youth built agency and a justice-orientation online in 2020, while combating misinformation and the limitations of social media. Youth practitioners can further consider social media as a key developmental context for civic education for immigrant-origin youth.