These opportunities and limitations are discussed in the section “Challenges and lessons learned”. This shift in research method, which does not rely merely on the planned interviews, also poses practical and ethical challenges in terms of informed consent, data collection and analysis. This poses a stimulating methodological challenge, which drives us to go beyond using WeChat as a data collection tool and reconceptualize it as a social object of enquiry to be explored using the netnographic approach. However, the large amount and the variety of this material prompted us to consider how best to utilize it for our research purposes. This provided us with access to a wide variety of supplementary material, which helped us analyze the interviews upon which the study was based. Having access to their digital space, we gained valuable insights into their daily habits, social activities, emerging problems, and work conditions. In fact, Italian immigrants in China regularly update their WeChat profiles and share information, feelings, and ideas with friends and public. Fourth, since WeChat is a ubiquitous tool in the interlocutors' daily life, used for both professional and social purposes, this tool allowed us to gain deeper insight into the digital lifeworld of the community studied. Third, as for other web-based tools, audio and video interviews are free, easy to use and familiar to interviewees who only need their mobile phone. Moreover, instant text and audio messages make easy to have asynchronous communications, that is key when working in different time zones. This enabled us to implement a strategy of snowball sampling that allowed us to effectively reach a great number of people remotely and at no cost. Second, as we obtained the personal phone number or WeChat ID of key informants in Shanghai, almost all other communications were held online. First, it helps researchers to create an informal environment where they can have frequent and real-time feedback that facilitates communication. On the basis of these studies, we analyze the benefits of using WeChat as a research tool. This tool was key in recruiting interviewees and creating relationship with local key informants, who were representatives of associations of Italians abroad or spokespersons for Italian cultural centers in Shanghai. WeChat is the leading internet communication system in China, offering traditional messaging, multimedia sharing, and represents a key element in the everyday life both for Chinese people and for the immigrant population in China. We used WeChat as the main tool for conducting our research and carry out interviews. Our studies on the Italian immigrants in Shanghai began in 2018 as a qualitative investigation in the overall research project of the Documentation Center on New Migrations of the University of Salerno (Ce.Do.M.-UNISA). This paper presents a methodological reflection based on our studies on the Italian community in Shanghai and focuses on the potential and limitations of using WeChat as an investigation tool for qualitative research.
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