Data on the Move: Unpacking Digital Migration Infrastructures

These developments have corresponded with states and multilaterals organisations collaborating with private sector and commercial actors to deploy digital technologies in migration management. The use of AI in border screening and detection, and the biometric data collection enabled through digital identity systems have been a site of public scrutiny, with civil society and rights organisations raising concerns about the data-related harms that people on the move are at risk of being subjected to through the implementation of these systems.

Having done a preliminary analysis of data stewardship in human mobility earlier, this served as a strong entry point for us to explore the challenges that people on the move often face when it comes to negotiating or drawing value from digital technologies. The lack of transparency, discriminatory practices, and the potential for data misuse undermine the agency and rights of mobile populations, resulting in a spectrum of disempowerment ranging from hyper-surveillance to complete invisibilisation.

Research objectives:

To address these issues, Aapti Institute conducted a year-long research initiative to examine the intersectionality of human mobility and data rights with the following objectives:

• Map the landscape of digital infrastructures in the context of human migration. This involved identifying the types and points of digital interactions that intersect with the mobility journey of people on the move.

• Unpack people’s access and ability to negotiate with digital infrastructures. We identified the barriers that impede the ability of mobile populations to harness the full potential of digital interactions.

• Build pathways for the governance of digital infrastructures such that it empowers mobile populations. By engaging with varied stakeholders, we designed policy, governance and technological that protect data rights and ensure equity, inclusivity, transparency, and accountability.

Deep dives into case studies:

During the initial period of our study in late 2023, we focused on secondary research and literature reviews to map the landscape of digital infrastructure in the context of human migration. Having acknowledged that human migration is a diverse landscape, occurring with differing challenges across various migration corridors, we consciously narrowed our research to specific sites of inquiry. The following section provides an overview of the rationale behind shortlisting our case studies, which would serve as a bedrock for our research and exploration in the migration and technology space. 

1. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

The violent, forced displacement of Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine State, Myanmar to Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh situates them within a state-humanitarian-multilateral paradigm, that has subjected them to data maximalism, surveillance, and negligible agency to negotiate with technologies deployed to manage the crisis. 

With nearly 1 million refugees residing within camps set up by multilateral and humanitarian actors, the governance of digital infrastructure in this scenario was ad-hoc and controlled by the Bangladeshi government—a state that is not a signatory to the UNHCR 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, and large actors such as UNHCR, WFP, WHO, BRAC and NRC among others.

Mapping technology deployment by these large actors, the various modes of data collection that are actively operating to collect refugee-related information and the governance of these were studied in detail through our research. We did this through desk research, field exploration, expert interviews and on-ground focus group discussions with the Rohingya population to situate their lived experiences. The report provides insights and recommendations to stakeholders who are involved in technology design and implementation within the camp settings in Cox's Bazar.

2. Nepalese migrants in India

For Nepalese migrants, India's established digital public infrastructure (DPI)—a population-scale system of identity, payments and data exchange—acts as the mediating digital layer to access economic and social institutions in the receiving country. However, provisions for social inclusion through DPI are limited by terms of the Indo-Nepal migration treaty, and regulatory agencies that act without ​​considering obstacles such as cultural differences, language barriers, and unfamiliar administrative processes that migrants encounter.

With nearly 7 million Nepalese migrants residing and seeking economic opportunities in India, the challenge for Nepalese migrants doesn’t lie in crossing borders or interacting digitally across borders. However, since Aadhaar, India’s digital identification system serves as a gateway to open bank accounts, secure employment, obtain SIM cards, and access healthcare services, ​​integration within the Indian socio-economic landscape is dependent on formal, state-led digital infrastructure—acting as a barrier to easier integration within India. 

The study focused on uncovering the challenges that migrants may encounter in integrating within states that have mature DPI, highlighting the gaps in governance when it comes to inclusion of vulnerable populations such as migrants. We did this through desk research, expert interviews and on-ground focus group discussions with Nepalese migrants within two cities in India. The report provides insights and recommendations for technology deployment, emphasising the need for inclusive and adaptive frameworks that prioritise community engagement to ensure successful integration and reduce alienation.

3. Indian higher education students in Germany

The cross-border mobility of students for further education has been an increasingly significant portion of global migration ever since the conclusion of the Second World War. As suggested by data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, there were over 6.4 million international students globally in 2021, as compared to two million in 2000. The number of people choosing to migrate for higher education is known to increase much faster than aggregate global migration. However, international student mobility is managed by digital infrastructure deployed by the state and higher education institutions that nurse a history of surveillance and sharing of personal data to meet policy objectives that aim to maintain control over the global knowledge economy.

Indian students migrating to Germany has doubled over the last 5 years, resulting in Indian students now being the largest international community on German campuses. Demographic shifts in Germany—an ageing population and low birth rate, are feeding into a growing skills shortage, with the Federal Government being prompted to take proactive measures to offset this trend. The German-Indian Migration and Mobility Agreement 2022, marks this shift in the Federal Government's outlook towards attracting skilled labour, with a focus on implementing legal processes and policy measures to incentivise the movement of qualified young Indians to Germany.

The study focused on mapping the digital interactions that students encountered on their journey from India to Germany. The mature regulatory landscape for personal data protection through the GDPR, and emerging database infrastructures being implemented through the EU Agency for large-scale IT systems (eu-LISA), and the Entry/Exit System (EES) proved to be a major site of interest to uncover the intersection of human migration with digital infrastructure. The research draws from existing literature, online surveys with students, focus group discussions and expert interviews to highlight the impact of digital migration infrastructures on international students to provide recommendations for state policymakers and higher education institutions. 

4. Technologies of resistance in human migration

While our other case studies were focused on people’s interaction with technologies in specific cross-border migration corridors, we noticed there was an emerging, bottom-up digital layer in human migration. As states, multilateral institutions, private sector and humanitarian organisations remain the large actors involved in deployment of technologies to manage migration, there is a growing resistance to surveillance and the lack of agency these systems are characterised by. 

Multiple community-led efforts are coming to the limelight, and these act as alternative systems to rebalance power dynamics to enable negotiating power for people on the move. 

The report discusses the need for such a layer to be recognised, and further creates a framework for ResTech. It then dives into resultant insights and a sustainable vision for ResTech. The study draws from existing and grey literature, and expert interviews to highlight the efforts and challenges emerging in this space.

Emerging insights and recommendations for policymakers:

Empowerment of mobile populations hinges on identifying the capacity of large actors to treat data as infrastructure: Currently, the impetus of large actors deploying digital infrastructure for migration management influences the technological design of these systems. Non-traditional data sources are now accessible in abundance through the widespread deployment of digital infrastructure. As a result, large actors like the state and multilateral organisations can use their capacity to create data assemblages (supply chains of data) for migration management, i.e., using data as infrastructure to increase knowability about people on the move and outline migration policy. As a result, acknowledging the power and capacity of large actors to use data as infrastructure for decision-making needs to be governed to create a rights-preserving, equitable migration ecosystem.

The growing pervasiveness of DPI requires further testing of these solutions through sandboxes or other approaches to test for isolated use-cases: In crisis and emergency situations, relying on available solutions such as Digital Public Goods and Building Blocks can help local actors prepare better to integrate with technology being deployed by states and multilaterals as they can provide increased transparency, auditability and accountability of technologies being used in humanitarian response and migration management. However, population-scale infrastructure needs to consider varied use-cases. As countries increasingly implement DPI, their policy objectives need to be monitored to ensure they are designed to include vulnerable groups like migrants and refugees. 

ResTech needs to be recognised as an emerging, community-led digital layer in human migration: Technologies within the migration ecosystem are increasingly top-down and deployed by large actors, leading to inequitable access to and negotiating power for people on the move to draw value from these systems. However, there are multiple instances where migrant communities have a direct involvement in the creation of technologies to resist existing power structures. States and multilateral institutions need to recognise and enable these efforts to empower people on the move to lead technology creation that is bottom-up and community-oriented.

Data governance needs to be viewed as ‘a means and not an end’ to ensure data rights are accrued to migrant communities: Even in regions with adequate provisions for data protection and autonomy over personal data sharing, people on the move are often subject to state-led surveillance and biased digital systems that create further vulnerabilities for people on the move. Creating checks and balances to enable migrants and refugees to negotiate how they interact with digital technologies is a crucial first step to ensuring their data rights are not at risk when digital infrastructure is misused by bad or malicious actors.