Current CFP

Call for Papers for the IRIE Volume 35

Managing Migration: Advanced Digital Technologies and the Movement of People

The use of advanced digital technologies (ADTs) in migration management has notably increased in recent years, facilitating the processing of migrants’ personal data (Collins, 2023). Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing, social media, big data analysis, biometric technologies, and various smart border solutions offer diverse opportunities for state and civil society actors (governments, NGOs, transnational institutions) dealing with both legal and irregular migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers (Nalbandian, 2022; Nalbandian and Dreher, 2023). Growing access to digital technology for institutional actors and migrants themselves, coupled with an abundance of information, can promote efficiency and streamline migration processes, and has the potential to lead to better decision-making, improved access to protection, more accountability, and enhanced public scrutiny (Madon and Schoemaker, 2021).

However, the datafication of migration through the implementation of ADTs raises significant ethical concerns regarding migrants’ fundamental human rights including the rights to privacy and data protection (Roessler, 2017; Dignum, 2018; Molnar, 2019), as well as procedural rights such as rights to due process, non-discrimination (Akhmetova, 2020), appeal, and the right to an effective remedy (Molnar and Gill, 2018; Beduschi, 2020). Migrants are vulnerable to the effects of the use of ADTs in data management because they are often unable to protect their own interests and are under threat of experiencing various harms (European Commission, 2010).  The ethical implications of the use of ADTs in migration data management extend to issues of transparency, consent, and accountability in the handling and processing of sensitive personal data. The potential for surveillance, profiling, discriminatory practices, subjection to violence, and lack of legal rights necessitates a critical examination of how these technologies are deployed and regulated.

As such, there has been a surge of interest among practitioners and scholars in the potential applications of the use of ADTs in migration data management and their ethical implications (Bither and Ziebarth, 2021). Digitalization impacts all areas of migration and asylum, including forecasting migration patterns (HAG de Valk et al., 2022; Nalbandian et al., 2022), advanced border control through behavior recognition, the use of open-source intelligence through social media, online forums, or satellite imagery, speech recognition, and mobile data analysis (Kariuki et al., 2021) to inform decision-making as well as aiding immigration detention, relocation, and settlement. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the need to adapt bureaucratic processes (McAuliffe et al., 2021).

We invite submissions that explore the impact of digitalization, automation, and technological advancements on the cross-border movement of people, with a particular focus on the ethical implications of immigration data management. How do different actors deploy ADTs to manage and control migratory movements and how do they cooperate with tech corporations in this regard? How do migration and border technologies influence transnational migration and border regimes? How are migrants affected by migration and advanced border technologies? What role do digital technologies play in the governance of asylum and humanitarian protection? How do information systems and underlying epistemic practices alter power dynamics and impact immigrant rights? How are the data infrastructures of migration and border control shaped within intersecting dimensions of power such as race, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, age, and generation? In what ways can they be contested to protect and advance migrants’ interests?

To this end, we invite submissions from any discipline, methodology, or a combination of them that address the themes listed below, including, but not limited to:

  • Ethical frameworks and principles guiding the use of ADTs in migration management
  • Case studies on the implementation of ethical guidelines in migration data handling
  • Challenges and effects of digitization of borders
  • Surveillance and border policing and its impact on migrants and refugees
  • Big data, AI, social media, and their impact on migrants and refugees
  • Digital economy, data centers, and migrant populations
  • Legal implications and ethical considerations of digitization in migration contexts
  • Humanitarian discourse and intervention in migration challenges
  • Intersection of ADTs with migrants’ welfare and security, such as the use of ADTs by migrants themselves to advance their own interests
  • Digital activism in migrant advocacy
  • Ecocritical migration studies on the human, natural, and technological relationships

Deadline for submission: January 25, 2025, 11:59 PM (AoE)

Submission Guidelines: Proposals should not exceed 500 words. They should be prepared for anonymous review and sent as a PDF file to yoldas@ualberta.ca. In a separate PDF attachment, please include your name, academic affiliation, e-mail address, and proposal title. For more information, please contact us at yoldas@ualberta.ca.

Bibliography

Akhmetova, R. (2020). “Efficient discrimination: on how governments use artificial intelligence in the immigration sphere to create and fortify ‘invisible border walls’. Centre on Migration, Policy and Society. Working Paper No. 149.

Beduschi, A. (2020). “International migration management in the age of artificial intelligence”. Migration Studies, 9(3), 576–596.

Bither, J. and Ziebarth, A. (2021). Automating decision-making in migration policy: a navigation guide. Migration Strategy Group On International Cooperation and Development, 1–41.

Collins, F. L. (2023). “Geographies of migration III: the digital migrant”. Progress in Human Geography, 47(5), 738–749.

Dignum, V. (2018). “Ethics in artificial intelligence: introduction to the special issue”. Ethics and Information Technology, 20(1), 1–3.

European Commission Directorate-General for Research. (2010). European textbook on ethics in research. Brussels.

HAG de Valk et al., (2022). “How to predict the future of migration: different methods explained and compared”. In Introduction to migration studies: an interactive guide to the literatures on migration and diversity (P. Scholten, ed.). Springer. 463–482.

Kariuki, P., Ofusori, L.O., Subramaniam, P.R., Okpeku, M., and Goyayi, M.L. (2021). “Challenges in contact tracing by mining mobile phone location data for COVID-19: implications for public governance in South Africa”. Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, 16, 101–124.

Madon, S. and Schoemaker, E. (2021). “Digital identity as a platform for improving refugee management”. Information Systems Journal, 31(6), 929–953.

McAuliffe, M., Blower, J., and Beduschi, A. (2021). “Digitalization and artificial intelligence in migration and mobility: transnational implications of the COVID-19 pandemic”. Societies, 11(4), 135–148. DOI: 10.3390/soc11040135

Molnar, P. and Gill, L. (2018). Bots at the gate: a human rights analysis of automated decision making in Canada’s immigration and refugee system. Citizen Lab and International Human Rights Program.

Molnar, P. (2019). “Technology on the margins: AI and global migration management from a human rights perspective”. Cambridge International Law Journal, 8(2), 305–330.

Nalbandian, L. (2022). “An eye for an ‘I:’ a critical assessment of artificial intelligence tools in migration and asylum management”. Comparative Migration Studies, 10(32). DOI: 10.1186/s40878-022-0 0305-0

Nalbandian, L., Dreher, N., and Nalbandian, A. (2022). Migration Tech Tracker. Interactive Map.

Nalbandian, L. and Dreher, N. (2023). “Current methodological approaches in studying the use of advanced digital technologies in migration management”. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 5. DOI: 10.3389/fhumd.2023.1238605

Roessler, B. (2017). “Privacy as a human right”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 117(2), 187–206.