Page 17 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

conceptual integration of the various models tackled in this dissertation project. I will conclude this introductory chapter with a brief overview of the remaining chapters of this dissertation.
Migrants and International Sojourners
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2016), migration is a process in which individuals and groups of people leave their homes for various reasons. Many migrants leave voluntarily but many are forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, and human rights violation. In the year 2018, there were about 1 billion people in the world living away from their homes (IOM, 2018). This number includes international migrants (people residing in a country other than their country of birth) and internal migrants (migrants inside of their country of origin).
Among scholars, there is a general distinction between two types of migrants: Those who intend to relatively permanently settle in the new location (long-term migrants) and those who plan to stay for a limited period of time (short-term migrants, temporary migrants, sojourners) (Dustmann, 1999). This dissertation will focus on international short-term migrants or sojourners.
International Sojourners
Sojourner is a label used to emphasize the temporary nature of stay of an individual in the new location. Sojourners expect to return to the place of origin once the purpose of stay has been achieved (Ward et al., 2001). This conceptualization suggests that there is a need for sojourners to maintain relationships with people back home because of the expectation of eventually returning (Ye, 2006). Sojourners may include contract or guest workers, asylum seekers, students, and even tourists (Safdar & Berno, 2006). Due to the diversity of goals and experiences of the various types of sojourners, this dissertation limits the coverage of “international sojourners” to those whose purpose of sojourn is either work or study (e.g., overseas workers, expatriates, and international students) in line with the current research literature (Bierwiaczonek & Waldzus, 2016; Hofhuis et al., 2019; McNulty & Brewster, 2017).
The past recent years have seen an increase in the number of international sojourners (United Nations, 2017). More and more, individuals are going abroad
Introduction 15