  By early March 2020, five million Venezuelans had fled their home country
after its complete economic and institutional collapse, and over 1.6 million
have migrated to Colombia. Migrants struggle to start their lives over in
Colombia, having arrived with few economic resources, and often no legal
documentation, in cities with little to offer them. Venezuelan migrants,
however, rely heavily on mobile phones and social media networks as lifelines
for information, opportunities, and resources -- making WhatsApp both a
critical tool for migrants' settlement and integration, as well as an
invaluable source of data through which we can better understand migrant
experiences. This thesis explores the dynamics of public WhatsApp groups used
by Venezuelan migrants to Colombia, and what they can tell us about how
migrants use and share information. We center our research on information
spread and trust, especially as they intersect with concentration and
geographic heterogeneity within groups. We analyze messages and memberships
broadly, then explore interaction within groups, fake news and economic scams,
and effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Our results have a range of policy
implications, from reflections on Colombia's decision to shut its borders
amidst the coronavirus pandemic, to understandings of how aid organizations can
effectively share information over social media channels.
