A Qualitative Investigation on the Role of Social Media in Intercultural Communication Competence: The Moroccan Diaspora in Canada as a Case-Study

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate how Moroccan migrants established in Canada utilize social media to improve their intercultural communication competence. It employs the exploratory sequential design based on the use of semi-structured interviews followed by a questionnaire. The results show that before migration, social media played an important role in providing the migrants with preliminary knowledge about the host culture via YouTube. Social media also facilitated communication with Canadians via Facebook. After migration, social and direct interaction was proven to be more effective in developing the participants’ ICC. As such, social media only played an informative role, whereas much of the participants’ intercultural knowledge, skills, attitudes, and awareness were developed from face-to-face communication. The study concludes that no matter how important social media can become, improving intercultural communication competencies cannot take place independently from face-to-face interaction.