Crossing the Border on Tiktok: Digital Narratives of Irregular Journeys through Novel Social Media Platforms

The rising popularity of the new social media app TikTok coincides with the appearance of new accounts that both document irregular journeys and advertise smuggling services. In the absence of sufficient regular migration pathways into Europe, information on social media regarding irregular journeys can provide individuals with concrete and immediate next steps. With the existence of evidence that migrants implicitly distrust smuggling services providers, migrants seek trustworthy sources. The usage of digital media platforms in spreading information on migratory projects, or even connecting transnational families is not a new phenomenon. However, the usage of TikTok, a video-based platform, presents a new opportunity to migrants as it adds a visual element to their information dissemination tactics, making it more accessible, and providing visual evidence to their audience beyond closed circles of other digital media platforms. TikTok is a catalyst in diminishing the information asymmetry experienced by people on the move by enhancing transparency in documenting individual journeys and disseminating information. Native dialectics are used in these TikTok videos, which eases the communication, and TikTok’s For You page and hashtags features provide easy access to this mode of social capital. Discourse analysis was used to understand the divergent narratives of both individuals documenting their own irregular journeys without the assistance of smuggling services, and the advertisers of smuggling services on TikTok. The engagement of the audience with such videos is compared to explore the resonance of different content with its audience. The findings of our analysis reveal that content from migrants traveling independently receives greater attention and engagement than that of individuals advertising their services, indicating the higher level of trust that a lack of profit-motive can confer.