scieee AI-readable full text Open interactive document viewer

Migration aspirations and crises in redditors' trajectories: a case of data extraction using local large language models

Hategekimana, Vestin

Publisher
Zenodo
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.17516445
Repository
zenodo.org
Language
en

Abstract

In the contemporary landscape of global mobility, understanding how personal life trajectories are shaped by migration decisions has become increasingly crucial (Akhila Chakshu & Rituparna, 2024; Soto Nishimura & Czaika, 2024). This research focuses on exploring how life-course events impact the migration intention of individuals who express a desire to move to Switzerland, using mixed-method longitudinal analysis and leveraging data from Reddit as a primary source and large language models as data extraction strategy. Using the subreddit r/AskSwitzerland, I aim to capture nuanced narratives that might otherwise be overlooked in traditional survey-based studies. Reddit provides an invaluable platform for longitudinal analysis, enabling researchers to track individuals’ migration journeys over extended periods and offering insights into how personal circumstances evolve alongside shifting social, economic, and political contexts. A particularly significant focus is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as a major crisis event. The non-official API (PullPush) facilitates the collection of the study’s dataset spanning from January 2018 to March 2022. By collecting and analyzing user profiles and posts from two years before and after the declared relocation decision (until March 2020), I aim to map out the temporal progression of migration intentions. One significant innovation is the use of large language models for sophisticated data extraction which allows researchers to infer demographic information and life-course events from users’ posts. This mixed-method longitudinal approach is divided into two phases. First, a quantitative analysis using a multilevel model will be conducted to identify the factors influencing the decision to migrate initially, and subsequently, whether an event like the COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on the willingness to migrate. Second, a qualitative analysis will be performed on individuals whose intention to migrate was halted by COVID-19 to gain further insights into their reasons.

Full text

Migration aspirations and crises in redditors’ trajectories: a case of data extraction using local large language models This research focuses on exploring how life-course events impact the migration intention of individuals who express a desire to move to Switzerland. Research Questions Method The AskSwitzerland subreddit from Reddit will be used as a primary data source. The non-official API (PullPush) facilitates the collection of the study’s dataset spanning from January 2018 to March 2022. Dataset Redditors’ concerns in Switzerland Concerns n prop 1 Work/Residential Permit 119 20.3% 2 Cost Of Life In Switzerland 104 17.7% 3 Speaking Local Language 96 16.4% 4 Finding Accomodation 76 13.0% 5 Healthcare System 42 7.2% 6 Financing The Settlement 24 4.1% 7 Finding School 22 3.8% 8 Salary 22 3.8% 9 Feeling Unwelcomed 21 3.6% 10 Dealing With Administration 20 3.4% 11 Financing The Move 17 2.9% 12 Feeling Lonely 8 1.4% 13 Politics 7 1.2% 14 Finding Childcare 3 0.5% 15 Finding Accommodation 2 0.3% 16 Tax Reason 2 0.3% 17 Feeling Homesick 1 0.2% Population (669) Using mixed-method longitudinal analysis and leveraging data from Reddit as a primary source and large language models (Qwen3:30b) as data extraction strategy. We collected Reddit posts expressing a desire to move to Switzerland from January 2016 through December 2021 on the r/AskSwitzerland subreddit. After filtering out individuals who posted only once in the subreddit, we ended up with a sample of 669 people. As expected on Reddit, these individuals are highly educated and mainly come from Anglo-Saxon countries (the United States and the United Kingdom). . Vestin Hategekimana Doctoral student University of Geneva. Slides here: