RESUMO
Drawing from a networked perspective of migration and from the concept of "transnational education," this paper investigates the education-related topics discussed in Facebook groups among Brazilian migrants in Germany. The paper examines the "latent ties" activated in migrant Facebook groups as part of networks that can be used to collect information about migratory pathways involving educational opportunities. A qualitative content analysis was conducted with 2.297 posts retrieved from six Facebook groups divided into location, vocational education and training (VET), and professional groups. The outcomes point out that there is a demand for transnational education beyond university degrees. Additionally, the paper highlights that latent ties can be used to collect and cross-check information in migratory contexts involving education.
RESUMO
Based on the heuristics proposed by Helen Nissenbaum to assess ethical issues surrounding research using new technologies, this paper discusses the ethics of the collection and analysis of migrants' digital traces for academic research purposes. Concretely, this paper is grounded on an empirical research that applies a topic modeling approach to a large dataset of migrants' posts written on Facebook groups. After discussing the nine aspects proposed by Nissenbaum, the paper contends that while researchers strive to comply with ethical measures by, for instance, asking adequate questions and protecting the collected data, the lack of transparency of social networking sites is harmful to critical social sciences and can hamper findings that contribute to understanding migratory patterns and decisions.
