Experiences of African student migrants in Moscow”: Understanding the uses of digital technologies for social services during the COVID-19 pandemic
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Cogent Education
Abstract
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has attracted a plethora of research from
medical-related disciplines other than sociological and migration disciplines . While
a significant number of research papers have considered the impacts of the COVID-
19 lockdowns and school closures on students, their observations are not directly
applicable to the over 5.3 million international students across the globe. The
purpose of this study is to understand how African Student Migrants (ASMs) used
technologies for social services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Moscow. This
study adopted a qualitative research approach to understand the use of digital
technologies for social services among 40 ASMs sampled through purposive and
snowballing techniques. The findings established that, the use of digital technologies
by ASMs played an instrumental role in social services such as accommodation,
learning and purchasing patterns rather than social communication, religious or
cultural practices, psychological and physical health, and dieting during the COVID-
19 pandemic. For policy-level recommendations, tech-savvy developers, the
International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Educational
Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the African Union (AU) should
collaborate and create digital technologies that are suitable for social services;
devise an information platform to capture basic information about ASMs that will
enable them to streamline welfare stimulus packages essential to their survival in
times of pandemics. This will also serve as a coping mechanism for society to
prepare for new social emergencies and use digital technologies to calibrate international
education and inform future policies on public health, school closures and
mobility beyond borders.
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Research Article
Citation
Citation information Cite this article as: “Experiences of African student migrants in Moscow”: Understanding the uses of digital technologies for social services during the COVID-19 pandemic, Standhope Anamoa-Pokoo, Olga Alexandrovna Urzha, Solomon Sika-Bright & Delali Margaret Badasu, Cogent Education (2022), 9: 2095883.