Joint ITIM – UNU CRIS seminar by Kikè Yra Fonton

Kikè Yra Fonton, UNU-CRIS PhD Fellow, will talk about “Estimating emigration from Senegal combining traditional and digital data”.

Abstract: As migration data in the South, specifically in Senegal are often outdated, insufficient and data collection not very regular, a component of my PhD research aims to find a palliative strategy, by obtaining from the temporally very granular data obtained from social media, improved estimates of migration. This field of research combining demography and big data is growing, and studies of migration using these new digital data (Facebook, Twitter, ...) have already been carried out in some Northern countries. My work therefore seeks to explore the extent to which this methodology is applicable to a country such as Senegal (where ICT penetration rate could be lower than in Northern countries) and define the most appropriate methodological framework. To achieve this objective, our research aims to first, estimate and describe Senegalese emigration based on a methodology that leverages Facebook pre-aggregated data, secondly infer and describe Senegalese emigration patterns combining traditional and Twitter data (Individual data), and finally, identify trends in the emigration of highly skilled Senegalese from the LinkedIn professional connection network.

This is a closed event. For further information, please contact Ruben Dewitte (Ruben.Dewitte@UGent.be) and Pascale Vantorre in cc (pvantorre@cris.unu.edu).