Decoding impermanent narratives: A study of transient migrants as digital influencers on YouTube

Students migrate from India annually for higher education in large numbers. Social media has become an essential network for disseminating information related to aspects of migration like student visas, college applications, residence and finances. YouTube engages vigorously in this dispersion of information. Many times, the sources of these kinds of information are found to be transient migrants themselves. YouTubers and influencers like Tushar Bareja, Nidhi Nagori, Gursahib Singh, Bani Singh and Saloni Verma, among others, have made a niche, creating content and sharing information about the experience of being a transient migrant. Much like the status of being transient, creating one’s brand on social media is both dynamic and fleeting, which cannot be defined in a sense of permanence. The analysis of content created by YouTube influencers enables an insight into the definition of transient migrant identity. The topics that are covered in the content showcase the particular components of international student life that add to the concept of a transient migrant identity. The article attempts to ask the question of how the YouTube videos made by student migrants end up contributing to the transient migrant identity. It also attempts to decipher how the transient identity itself is packaged as a commodity to be monetized by these student migrant influencers on YouTube. Using theoretical frameworks of influencer culture, social media and migration, the article attempts to unravel the workings of YouTube in commodifying the transient migrant experience.