Information grounds as a vehicle for social inclusion of domestic migrant workers in Israel

Pages934-952
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JD-02-2017-0023
Published date11 September 2017
Date11 September 2017
AuthorJenny Bronstein
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Information grounds as a vehicle
for social inclusion of domestic
migrant workers in Israel
Jenny Bronstein
Department of Information Science, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Abstract
Purpose Economic adversity, geopolitical, and climate crises leading to the lack of decent and sustainable
work are resulting in growing and diverse migratory movements. The precarious situation of many migrant
workers in their countries of employment results in a state of social exclusion due to a lack of access to
relevant information sources. The purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of the information
behavior of migrants by examining the role that La Escuelita, a Hebrew night school for domestic migrant
workers in Israel, plays as an information ground helping migrants struggling with social exclusion.
Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology was used and data were collected using
participation observation over a three-months period. Eight students at the school were interviewed using
in-depth interviews.
Findings La Escuelita served as a vehicle for social inclusion by providing valuable everyday information
to the students in a caring environment. Information was shared in multiple directions between both the staff
and the students and between the students. Language barriers were revealed as one of the main factors for
social exclusion. Findings revealed that although the migrant workers who study at La Escuelita are
information poor regarding their struggle for social inclusion into Israeli society, they wish to learn Hebrew as
a way to overcome this exclusion.
Originality/value Understanding the information behavior of marginalized populations is the first step
into designing and implementing information services to help them toward social inclusion. This research
presents an innovative contribution by examining the significance and roles of social connections in the
setting of a unique information environment.
Keywords Information behaviour, Migrants, Information sharing, Marginalization, Information grounds,
Information poverty
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
International labor migration has become a major global issue that involves most countries
around the world, and is a central topic of international, regional, and domestic policies and
agendas (International Labour Organization, 2015). International labor migration is defined
as the movement of people from one country to another for the purpose of employment due
to globalization, demographic shifts, conflicts, income inequalities, and climate change
(International Labour Organization, 2015). There are an estimated 150 million migrant
workers of which 11.5 million are migrant domestic workers (International Labour
Organization, 2015). The majority of domestic migrant workers (73.5 percent) are women.
Although labor mobility has become a key feature of the global economy and labor
migration greatly contributes to the growth and development of the countries of
employment the migration process also presents some serious challenges (International
Labor Office, 2010). Migrant workers, especially low-skilled workers, can often face
exploitative working and living conditions, low wages, a virtual absence of social protection,
and discrimination (Britz, 2004).
The precarious situation of many migrant workers in their countries of employment
often results in social exclusion due to a lack of access to relevant information sources, social
capital, economic resources, and the educational skills needed to adapt to life in a new
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 5, 2017
pp. 934-952
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-02-2017-0023
Received 22 February 2017
Revised 21 June 2017
Accepted 25 June 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
This research was founded by a grant from the Israeli Science Foundation No. 578/15.
934
JD
73,5
country (Caidi et al., 2010; Mansour, 2015; Khoir et al., 2015; Omidvar and Richmond, 2003).
A renewed focus on the social aspects of information in the library and information science
literature has prompted recent interest in the isolation from mainstream sources of
information experienced by vulnerable populations. Due to their backgrounds and
experiences, they are significantly at risk of being excluded from the societies of the
countries thatemploy them (Caidi and Allard, 2005; Lingel,2011; Srinivasan and Pyati, 2007).
Despite the central role that information plays in integrating immigrants into a new
society (Fisher et al., 2004; Hicks and Lloyd, 2016; Lloyd et al., 2013; Orange et al., 2012;
Shankar et al., 2016; Srinivasan and Pyati, 2007), very limited empirical research exists that
examines their information behaviors, needs, and practices (Khoir et al., 2015). Immigrants
find themselves in world of in-betweenness(Srinivasan and Pyati, 2007) and need to
negotiate new cultural forms and identities in a culturally alien information environment
(Mehra and Papajohn, 2007, p. 12). They must develop new information practices and social
networks to make sense of new situations in their efforts for social inclusion in their new
country. This paper presents an exploratory study conducted in Israel about a night school
called La Escuelita (Little School) that teaches Hebrew to Spanish-speaking domestic
migrant workers. La Escuelita serves as an information ground that exemplifies a way to
provide domestic migrant workers a path to social inclusion.
Information groundsare defined as synergistic environment[s] temporarily created
when people come together for a singular purpose but from whose behaviour emerges a
social atmosphere that fosters the spontaneous and serendipitous sharing of information
(Pettigrew, 1999, p. 811). Kelder and Lueg (2011) further asserted that the first issue to
examine when talking about information grounds is whether the information sharing
activities observed are incidentalto the main event(p. 5). La Escuelita fit these
characteristics because, though its primary goal is to help migrant workers learn Hebrew,
this weekly class became a place where migrant workers seek and share everyday
information and social support. Adapting to life in a new country can be a difficult
transition, and requires that newcomers learn a new language, understand and adopt a new
way of life with different customs, social norms, and laws, and often build new social
relationships. Thus, understanding the information behavior of a sector of the population
that suffers from social exclusion (such as domestic migrant workers) may lead to the
development of social programs to assist them in this transition. This study, then, explored
the following research questions:
RQ1. What characterizes La Escuelita as an information ground?
RQ2. How do domestic migrant workers perceive their social exclusion from
Israeli society?
Information grounds
Information grounds can occur anywhere, be attended by different social types (Counts and
Fisher, 2010), and are places where free and easy social interactions can occur that foster
information sharing and use (Khoir et al., 2015). As Fisher et al. (2004, p. 757) observed:
As people visitand engage in social interaction in the information ground setting, their
conversation about life in general and about specific situations leads to the formal and informal
sharing of information on a range of topics and in a multitude of directions.Fisher et al. (2005)
explained that information grounds are strongly linked to these social interactions based on
peoples natural inclination for socially constructing and sharing information. Fisher and Naumer
(2006) expanded the concept of information grounds to include the following propositions:
P1. People gather at information groundsfor a primary, instrumental purpose other
than information sharing.
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Information
grounds

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