A Sense of Home: two migrant personas during COVID-19

Abstract

This article interrogates how the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic influenced the way that we produce online personas as migrants to Australia. By conducting comparative autoethnographic analysis of our online personas built on the social media sites Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, we unpack the role of mediated persona performance in connecting to our adopted homes as well as our connection to, and forced separation from, our countries of origin. There is a growing body of research on the impact of COVID-19 on migrants, particularly on forced migrants throughout Europe, and the impact of racism directed at migrants during the early stages of the pandemic. In Australia, scholars considered the role of technology in mediating relationships during lockdowns in 2020. This project broadens the scope of this body of research by looking at migrants who came to Australia with the intention of staying, by looking across platforms, and by considering not only what is shared and why, but what is absent: the ways we were – and are – strategically silent in our online persona performances.