Presented at LILAC 2024.

1. Based on:
Blain, M-J. Rodriguez del Barrio, L.,
Caron, R., Parent, A-A. (2020-
2024). Jeunes adultes récemment
immigré(e)s à Montréal : quel futur
professionnel? Identité, projets
professionnels et expériences
d’accès aux services. CRSH
Développement des Savoirs.
LILAC 2024
« I have no idea who I’d even ask »:
information literacy and
dissemination amongst recently
arrived immigrants in Montreal,
Canada
Marianne Chiu-Lezeau, research coordinator, McGill University
Marie-Jeanne Blain, lead researcher, Université de Montréal

2. STRUCTURE
1. Brief presentation of the research project
2. Young adult immigrants and information seeking
a) Variety of different needs
b) Independent research
c) Trust in social services (or lack thereof)
3. Information sharing with peers and loved ones
a) Social media and transnational networks
b) Family and friends
c) One-on-one relationships with advisors
4. Perspectives from advisors and counsellors
5. Recommendations
NB: immigration can be exhilarating and complicated, traumatic or emancipating, chosen or forced. This presentation will not
attempt to do justice to the nuance in people’s experience of migration. It focuses on young people’s relationship with
information as part of their migration, which for those we met was usually difficult at best.
NB: project and presentation based on grounded theory/ethnographic methodology.

3. THE RESEARCH PROJECT
Montreal/Quebec context: strong increase of immigration, particularly temporary statuses. Provincial/city/country level
sometimes contradictory policies and attitudes
Main research question: how young adult immigrants make their socio-professional choices, their perceptions, and the
challenges/best practices for social services to respond to their needs.
Driving issues
How do young adult immigrants make their socio-professional choices, and how do they perceive the decision-
making and information-seeking process? Where do they go for information or help, and is it helpful and
accurate? How can social services disseminate information in a way that reaches and helps young adult
immigrants?
Data collection
Autumn 2021 to Autumn 2023, individual qualitative interviews (60 min. to 180 min.), 3 discussion groups (120 min)
- 29 young adult immigrants, 18-25 years old. 12 on temporary statuses, 9 refugees, 2 citizens, 6 other permanent
status. 24 countries
- 17 social workers/counsellors/community organisation directors or administrative team (education, employment,
health and social services...)

4. Variety of needs specific to young adult immigrants (Wang et al., 2020; Morten & Hyldegård, 2019)
o neither adolescents nor older adults with potentially an established career/family concerns*
o state of fluctuation: precarity, flexibility, changes in identity, life choices…
It’s “a lot of fear, a lot of excitement” (Liqiu, Hong Kong)
*NB: some young adult immigrants do have familial responsibilities and other obligations, which puts them in a particularly unique
situation
YOUNG ADULT IMMIGRANTS AND INFORMATION
SEEKING: SPECIFIC NEEDS
How to find a job
What program of studies to
choose
Where to make
friends
Where to get healthcare
How to figure out their identity
and sense of self (esp. for queer
people)
How to access a food bank
How to leave a bad housing
situation
How to juggle work and
studies How to stay connected with loved ones
back home

5. YOUNG ADULT IMMIGRANTS AND INFORMATION
SEEKING: SPECIFIC NEEDS
Accurate and timely information as a necessity, with long-term implications
ELIS framework (Hwa Koo 2019, Hertzom & Hyldegård, 2019, Chang et al., 2022): what happens when
one no longer intuitively understands the “order” of things? Disorientation, which can mean:
Relationship with information seeking: one aspect influences the other
[studies impacting immigration] “I cried that day! I was so frustrated. I was like.. I just need to know if I can
stay [emphasis] in this FUCKING country.”(Liqiu, Hong Kong)
“c’était horrible parce que j’étais très, très stressée, très anxieuse, je n’étais pas contente, je n’avais pas
d’amis proches encore, je ne savais pas ce que je faisais vraiment.” (Jana, Lebanon)

6. YOUNG ADULT IMMIGRANTS AND INFORMATION
SEEKING: INDEPENDENCE?
Sometimes doing your own research is easy(er)
“If you wanna do for a CV… you just go home (laughter), and you put CV, for working, and you will get the, like the
format.” (Khaled, Palestine)
“I went through all of that alone, (...) but I did ALL of that work(...) by myself. Now, (...)I know all about myself.” (Shivansh,
India)
f
Sometimes, you just don’t have a choice
For university programs: “I went to an advisor who was like : “I’ve never seen this program, are you sure it exists? “ and
I was like “yeah, it’s on your website”.” (Finch, Australia)
For healthcare: “I have a dislocation every day (..). And I’ve never had help. They.. won’t give me a doctor. So I just..
truly have started doing it myself, which is not good […] It’s kind of horrifying [laughter].” (Fern, USA)
For immigration: “I called this… a bunch of different numbers(...) and it was… hard to, like get an answer (…) they
tended to like give you vague answers, or like stuff that I already found on the website.” (Sofia, Italy)

7. YOUNG ADULT IMMIGRANTS AND INFORMATION
SEEKING: TRUST
Information poverty and lack of trust in institutions: Matler & Ngoepe (2021), Tyrberg, 2024
“I broke down crying about it (...) it was kind of like… “I don’t know, go call your parents, figure out
what you’re doing” (…) I don’t think I… trusted a lot of them to actually be helpful?” (Finch, Australia)
“on sait pas quoi faire. On connait pas les procédures ici. Même au [community centre]… je peux pas
me permettre de demander quoi que ce soit, je suis nouvelle et j’aime pas partager ma vie privée,
avec d’autres personnes.” (Meriem, Algeria)
“[d’autres] ne sont pas capables [of asking for help] soit à cause de la langue, soit à cause qu'ils sont
gênés, timides” (Marwa, Syria)
f
Lack of legitimacy in asking for help
“Well, I could use it, but like… I shouldn’t [ask for help], [I] actually have a master’s degree (…)There's
probably a lot of people, who need more help.” (Benyamin, Türkiye)

8. INFORMATION SHARING WITH LOVED ONES: HERE AND
THERE
Social media and networks beyond borders (Zhao, 2023)
- Facebook groups / Subreddits / WhatsApp groups
- Transnational interest groups
“some person’s post on like, “does anyone know where I can find information to this and this problem I have”, and
then everyone in the comments is like “yes, McGill is notoriously shit at this, so… here, I found them for you”.” (Liqiu,
Hong Kong)
Importance of family and friends (Wang et al. 2020) including for referrals
“je savais pas vers où je suis en train d'aller, mais j'étais comme s'il y a mon oncle là-bas, genre... en fait, mon
oncle, pour moi, c'est ma confiance.” (Layla, Morocco)
“it was my choice, and my father was like, you like this, you like this, so maybe you can take this, apply for this”
(Abbas, Syria)
“I don’t really know about that [grants], my dad does, so I’m going to hit him up, I have friends who also work on
grants and stuff…” (Fern, USA)

9. INFORMATION SHARING: YOU CARE FOR
ME, I TRUST YOU
Importance of a personalised relationship with the professional they’re talking to (French class
teachers, social worker, continued education teacher, job centre counsellor…), and of having one
main point of contact:
“Elle m’a beaucoup aidé, elle m’aide toujours, elle est là pour moi, elle me donne des idées, elle me
conseille… quand je l’appelle… elle répond tout de suite.”(Meriem, Algeria)
“Il dépasse même les limites de son travail (…) lui, il aime vraiment beaucoup son travail, mais il fait
plus que son travail. Et moi je vois. C'est la personne que je vois le plus”. (Kassim, Central African Republic)
“C'est [counsellor] qui me donne tout le temps du courage (…) il me donne des conseils et me
comprend bien.”(Naya, Mali)

10. PERSPECTIVES FROM ADVISORS AND
COUNSELLORS
- Complicated funding environment, policies above their paygrade: how to give one-on-one help if there’s
no time and no money to do so?
- How to reach young adults, as a difficult group to ‘catch’
o What about those who aren’t working or studying?
-Need for tools that are adaptable, that can be updated frequently
o Digital tools, but what about the digital divide?
-Language matters: can the services and the information be in different languages?
- Organisational policies: how flexible are they really?

11. RECOMMENDATIONS: MULTILEVEL CHALLENGES
AND BEST PRACTICES
Policies, programs, laws
Labour market
Educational system
Community org. networks
Social/neighbourhood/
local/family/peer
networks
NATIONAL --------------------------------- TRANSNATIONAL
Young adult
immigrants
MACRO
MESO
MICRO
City-level
Neighbourhood
level Adapted from Popyk, Pustułka et Trąbka (2019)
Theorizing Belonging of Migrant Children and Youth at a Meso-Level
+ temporality

12. SOME BEST PRACTICES - AS TOLD BY YOUNG
ADULTS
MICRO LEVEL
-Fostering mutual aid
- Bridging the gap vis-à-vis institutions
-For practitioners: holistic approach to information and general needs
MESO LEVEL
- Services in multiple languages
- Shared information and referral policies amongst providers
- Prioritising outreach in a way that makes sense for them: digital outreach, in spaces that they frequent, through third
parties
- Programs that answer concrete needs (eg. How does the higher education system work? Zotero workshop)
MACRO LEVEL
- Government funding for grassroots community organisations
- Creating a space for mutual aid specifically for information sharing
- Providing technology to bridge the digital divide

13. CONCLUSION AND
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Research team: Marie-Jeanne Blain, Lourdes Rodriguez del Barrio, Roxane Caron, André-Anne Parent
Research coordinator: Marianne Chiu-Lezeau
Research partners and collaborators:
All the research participants in Montreal, young adults and practitioners
Research assistants: Vicken Kayayan, Hicham el Falah El Alaoui, Lamiae Bouqentar, Marianne Chiu-Lezeau, Eloise Jaumier
Transcriptions: Luka Mincic, Balia Fainstein, Erika Akimoto Toyohama
Funding: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
“It took me 3 years to find people que je me sentais à l’aise avec.” (Jana, Lebanon)