Introducing the series of articles about @WeAreXpats
An expat. Expat-turned-immigrant. Repatriate. Third Culture Kid. I scroll through the never-ending timeline of posts, exploring stories of those who temporarily left their home countries and decided to share their experiences by taking over the @WeAreXpats X (Twitter) account.
The idea of using social media to share unique perspectives and diverse life situations originated in Sweden. In 2011, @sweden pioneered the rotation curation concept by showcasing the diversity of Sweden through weekly curated tweets. 1
A screenshot of the post on @Sweden X's (Twitter) account announcing the end of The Curators of Sweden project.
I like to think about this initiative in its broader historical context. Throughout the early 2010s, as more people gained access to the internet and technology, users increasingly contributed to content creation through online social networks. New digital environments provided opportunities to store and archive information while also opening new fields for research. During this time of dynamic technological revolution, the study exploring the preservation of resources shared on social media showed that each year, approximately 11% of shared resources were lost. 2 Events like the H1N1 virus outbreak, Michael Jackson’s death, the Iranian elections and protests, Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Egyptian revolution, and the Syrian uprising seem to be slowly vanishing from the web, leaving little to no valid information for future historians.
There is some truth in how I will never be able to access photos from my first digital camera, messages from my old Nokia, or private accounts I forgot passwords to long ago. In some time from now on, not everything on the internet will be easily accessible, getting lost in the countless pieces of information. I think about the stories on the @sweden account. Will they also disappear?
@WeAreXpats was an initiative inspired by the @sweden’s project and started by the Expatriate Archive Centre. Established as a digital archiving experiment, the venture aimed to capture the diverse life situations and perspectives of expatriates, individuals temporarily residing in countries other than their own. @WeAreXpats provided a platform for expatriates to share their stories, insights, and perspectives on a global stage. The concept was elegantly simple yet profoundly impactful: each week, a different expatriate curator would assume control of the account, offering a unique window into their expatriate journey from Monday at 12:00 CET to the following Monday at 11:00 CET. This rotational system ensured a continuous flow of diverse narratives, capturing the rich mosaic of expatriate experiences across cultures, continents, and contexts. Over the course of five years, the @WeAreXpats initiative flourished, with nearly 200 expatriates or recent repatriates actively participating in the project. Through shared anecdotes, reflections, and insights, @WeAreXpats became a community hub, illustrating the shared journey of expatriates across the globe and fostering a sense of community among its followers. @WeAreXpats captured the imagination of expatriates, showcasing their stories not only as testimonies but also as precious resources for academics and researchers who can now visit the archive centre or view the project’s summary online, on the EAC website.
As an expatriate myself, I somehow envy those who got to follow the @WeAreXpats in real-time. Always curious about other places and cultures, I imagine following the account must have been like joining Phileas Fogg's journey in Around the World in 80 Days. Each week presented by a different curator in a distinct part of the world opened a window into the experience of living abroad. Looking at the old posts of curators, I sense genuineness in the way expatriates present the reality of the highlights and struggles of being a foreigner. @WeAreXpats reflects on how the place and origin of the post's author make ordinary stories, such as a walk, getting breakfast, or commuting to work, become extraordinary moments.
In this series of articles, I treat stories published by expatriates as a part of a bigger, compelling picture. By looking at @WeAreXpats in the way I usually tend not to look at social media, I hope to create a testimony of those who generously decided to participate in the project. In the modern digital age, posts become a repetitive, seemingly ephemeral practice. That is why, in the next chapters of this article series, I will share stories that remind us of the lasting impact of personal narratives.