Social media and migration: analysis of its influence on African migrants in South Africa

South Africa, after the adoption of inclusive governance in 1994 became the new migration hub for new migrants from Africa, and across the globe. For some of these migrants, South Africa is their second-best choice, and for others, a destination. Thus making South Africa among the top immigrant receiving countries in Africa. In an era where digital interconnectivity shapes the fabric of society and the economy, social media stands as an imperative pillar for the connectivity and mobility of migrants. Apart from being a powerful tool that aggregates, coordinates, and reproduces social representations of any society, it is instrumental to reaching large groups of audiences. In Africa, social media have grown popular, with more than 384 million users on the continent and more than 28 million users in South Africa. Using social media theory and the qualitative research method, this study explores the influence of social media on the decision making of African migrants and the relationship between migration, integration, the connectivity of these migrants to their state of origin, and the influence of social media on African identity in South Africa. The work concludes that though migrants explore social media to their advantage but South African netizen through negative use of social medial exposed the already fractured African identity showing that Africans are not united, that what colonial mappings have created have had a negative effect on Africa and has also created a sense that one African is better than the other