Revisiting acculturation research with big data: the case of the Italian diaspora through the lens of Facebook interests

Abstract This article leverages big data to contribute to acculturation research, tapping on population behavior to measure the proximity of an ethnic minority to majority and homeland orientations. Our data consists of anonymized information from the Facebook Advertising Platform Interface about active users who speak Italian on the platform and reside in the 16 countries with the largest Italian-speaking communities worldwide. We conduct two main analyses. First, by calibrating the volume of Italian-speaking Facebook users with the penetration rate of the platform by country, age and gender, we estimate that the Italian diaspora amounts to 5.66–5.95 million people globally (aged 18 or more). Second, we record the level of interest of Italian speakers in given topics covered by Facebook (called ‘Facebook interests’) and measure its (dis)similarity with the corresponding level among users in the country of residence and users in Italy as an indicator of Berry’s types of acculturation (integration, assimilation, separation, or marginalization). From our data, no overarching acculturation model prevails across the board. However, variability in the diaspora is lower when it comes to typical manifestations of ethnic heritage, for which the interests of Italian speakers are higher than among locals but lower than among homeland Italians. On the basis of such dissimilarities in interests, the Italian diaspora is segmented into three clusters, reflecting geographic and cultural areas: Italians in Latin America, the Anglosphere, and continental Europe.