Same Same, But Different: An Examination of Different Student Groups' Information Behaviors

ABSTRACT Tertiary students are a widely studied group within the information behavior literature. This is in part because they are quite a diverse group of people but through a shared context of university, have overlaps in information environments. However, studies tend to consider the entirety of tertiary students, or only migrant students, rather than comparing between students that have migrated for study versus those that have not (sedentary students). The distinction is important as migrant students draw on transnational information sources, which further enriches their information experiences. Further, there is a tendency to emphasize the vulnerability of migrant students' experiences rather than appreciating their strengths. To address these gaps, we ran a made‐for‐purpose survey ( N = 202). While there were similarities in information seeking behaviors, we found statistically significant differences for migrant students: they were more likely to interact with perceived disagreeable and perceived useful information, and to curate perceived useful information. This research expands on existing work by showcasing quantitative differences in information behaviors between migrant and sedentary student groups. This paper contributes to the information behavior literature by providing a different perspective on migrant students' information behaviors which can be seen as strengths, rather than weaknesses.