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This paper aims to explore the adaptive experiences of first-year international graduate students at a US university. It aims to understand the challenges they encounter, strategies they adopt with social media to navigate these challenges and tensions that emerge in their social media interactions.

This study uses a qualitative multiple-case research design to collect data from 22 semistructured interviews with 11 participants. Additionally, 110 social media artifacts were collected, focusing on international students’ use of social media in everyday and academic contexts.

This paper offers empirical insights into social media’s role in helping international students address practical challenges and fulfill learning needs in academic studies, assistantships, cultural understanding and the constructions of ethnic and peer groups for emotional and social support. Additionally, it identifies tensions such as addiction, distractions, emotional distress and the creation of filter bubbles.

Given the qualitative approach of this paper, the generalizability of study findings is limited. Future studies can focus on different sites to explore context-related issues, students across different years or use a longitudinal research design to further explore international students’ experiences in relation to social media use and its role in their adaptation over time.

This paper proposes implementing social media curricula in universities to educate students on media literacy and digital competence and create peer groups to support international students beyond classrooms.

This paper adds value to informal learning literature focusing on international students.

Since March 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted refugees by compounding preexisting and systemic health, social and economic inequities. In Canada, approximately 50,000 Syrian refugees arrived between 2015 and 2020 and were in the process of rebuilding their lives when the pandemic started. This study aims to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for Syrian refugees in Canada and identify supports needed.

Drawing on frameworks for refugee psychosocial adaptation and social integration and a qualitative descriptive design, the study used thematic analysis to examine semi-structured interviews with 10 Syrians.

Findings indicated four themes that provide a snapshot of impacts relatively early in the pandemic: facing ongoing development, inequity and insecurity during integration; disruption of settlement, integration and adaptation due to the pandemic; ongoing adaptation and resilience during integration in Canada; and ongoing needs and solutions for integration and adaptation.

This study builds upon growing research concerning Syrian refugees and psychosocial adaptation, particularly during the pandemic. The findings highlight the impacts of the pandemic on a population already facing inequities in a resettlement country. While the findings emphasize the resilience of the Syrian refugee community, the study also demonstrates the need for ongoing supports and justice-oriented action to fulfill resettlement commitments, especially in the face of additional stressors like the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications for policy, practice and future research are discussed.