What do an expatriate need ­ and what can Expat World Stockholm give them?

Abstract: This research investigates the Facebook group Expat World Stockholm , a group that enables people to exchange information, experiences, and knowledge about Stockholm. Although the group primarily address expatriates, that is ­ people who live in another country for an extended time, the group welcomes anyone to join. The aim of this study is an attempt to identify needs that members’ express with their participation in the group. What are they searching for in Expat World Stockholm and what potentially is served in the group to fulfill these needs? To achieve this aim, I analyzed the content and feature usage generated in the group during two particular time periods, namely January to February 2017 and January to February 2018. To gain an understanding of expatriates’ needs expressed in the group, the content analysis in the form of common word­pairings were interpreted together with the use of features. Based on the findings it seems that the members, in general, express a need of informational and social (emotional) support, and have in particular, in both of the time periods, utilized features that enable them to share and reach support through clickable references. For this reason, it seems that Expat World Stockholm appears to be a group of supportive, helping and mutual behavior. A general implication of this study is that technology becomes an important part of expatriates’ information behaviors as they seem to rely on the Internet, social media and online communities as sources to find information and (emotional) social support.