In 2015, in the aftermath of regional conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, approximately 1.3 million people migrated in the hope of better living conditions to member states of the European Union, UK, Norway and Switzerland. The resulting refugee crisis led to stricter legislation for asylum-seekers, propping up formidable enclosures such as the new European Border and Coast Guard (EBCGA–Frontex) that was supported by a whopping 245 million euros in budget allocations.

As of June 2024, nearly 117.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide due to persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations. State institutions, multilaterals and humanitarian organisations that are responsible for managing people on the move were stretched thin, often lacking the resources to respond to unanticipated crises. Phone connectivity and internet infrastructure helped people on the move discover essential services and information through initiatives that cater specifically to the needs of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

For states and multilateral actors, the design intent behind technologies is to manage and predict migration patterns and trends, representing a ‘top-down’ approach to migration management. For communities and other humanitarian actors, the design intent shifts to a migrant-centric approach rooted in serving community needs and centring migrant voices in building and deploying technologies for migration. We have unpacked this divergence in our case study on community-oriented technologies, which we term ResTech.

The way in which digital and data systems in global human migration have impacted migratory journeys, discourse, and policy is manifold. Such emerging infrastructures have become significant markers for states to know, predict, and manage migration. The status quo, as we know it, is a dance of data being tossed around amongst ecosystem players: from states to multilaterals, from private enterprises to other commercial entities. This data is moulded and remoulded to cater to a variety of uses, creating a tapestry of data assemblages. These assemblages are bundles of data that can be shuffled to understand migration patterns through varied stakeholder lenses, whether to drive policymaking, or to build technologies to better surveil migrants. All things considered, migration technologies are ‘top-down’ in their approach and are reduced to managing a spectacle of numbers, often failing to account for the diversity in migrant experiences and journeys.