Applications Invited for Motivation Behind Fellowship

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About the Organization

The Monitor is a living and growing archive of work done at the intersection of migration and technology. We are a collective of journalists, artists, researchers, and storytellers interrogating the human impacts of border technologies.

But how do we tell complex stories, when abstract technologies and hidden practices are difficult to see?

Technology replicates power structures in society. Unfortunately, the viewpoints of those most affected are routinely excluded from the discussion. At the Monitor, we try to change this — both by giving space to the experiences of people directly affected by border tech experiments as well as by investigating and interrogating how these technologies are playing out on the ground.

About the Fellowship

People on the move are often left out of conversations around technological development. Like other historically marginalized communities, their lives serve as testing grounds for experimental new technologies. The growth of these high-risk technological experiments at the border range from biometric mass surveillance in refugee camps, to the use of automated decision-making in immigration and refugee applications, to AI lie detectors deployed at airports. These technologies do not account for the far-reaching impacts on human rights and human lives. Blanket technological solutions do not address the root causes of displacement, forced migration, and economic inequality, all factors exacerbating the vulnerabilities communities on the move face.

Ironically, technologies could also be used for the protection of people on the move. AI that calculates the routes of people on their way across borders could be implemented to guarantee safe-passage, surveillance technology could monitor the behavior of border patrol agents and make sure that international law is being upheld, and language processing could facilitate the access to asylum services in the host country.

Through the third year of our Migration and Technology fellowship program, we aim to continue creating opportunities for people with lived experience of migration to meaningfully contribute to research, storytelling, policy, implementation of technology and advocacy conversations from the start, and not as an afterthought. Among our aims is a collaborative, intellectual, and advocacy community committed to border and migration justice. We prioritize opportunities for participatory work, including the ability to pitch unique and relevant projects by affected communities themselves.

Our fellows so far have worked on projects ranging from the utilization of WhatsApp and social media for resource sharing, to a chatbot designed to facilitate access to legal services, research and reporting on the surveillance of mobile and occupied communities, educational programs on digital rights and ICT skills, technical support for people on the move at borders, a social media platform dedicated to the memories of people on the move, and social media information services for migrant workers, among others.

Ultimately, for conversations around the impacts of technology in migration to shift towards the lived experiences of people, communities and individuals living through these technological experiments must be in the driver’s seat. This includes having access to robust resources, including the time and space to develop ideas, build skills, and develop connections. One way to support work outside of the established hierarchies of power which are often centered on established institutions is to fund work and redistribute resources to communities and individuals who may not be able to benefit from funding and resources readily available in the EU and North America.

Eligibility

Lived Experience

• Are you currently in an active situation of forced migration, displacement (externally and internally), or occupation?
• Have you arrived in your host community and find it hard to get access to resources for the implementation of an idea?
• Has your lived experience of migration or displacement inspired you in the development of a project that will have a positive impact on mobile or migrated communities? Please read on!

Interplay of Technology and Migration

Technology already has and will have an ever-increasing impact on the life of all people. We are interested in a wide range of ideas that center the intersection of technology and migration, such as:

• Research: Do you need financial support for a research project that deals with the impact of technology on mobile, migrated, or occupied communities? We want to know more.
• Journalism: Are you a displaced, migrated or currently migrating journalist? Or are you a member of a community under forced occupation? Do you want to report on how technology is used in the field of migration? Please explain how.
• Culture: As a person with lived experience of migration, displacement or occupation, do you want to make the use of technology in these communities visible through a cultural project? Very interesting. What do you have in mind
• Education: Do you want to use your story of migration, displacement, or occupation to teach future generations how to use and to protect themselves against technology? Do you want to use the intersection of migration and technology in order to create awareness in an educational setting? Tell us what you want to do.
• Tech-in-use: Do you have first-hand experience with how technology has made the life of people on the move or under occupation more difficult? Are you inspired to develop systems and projects that want to use technology in support of mobile communities? We are all ears.
• Tech and the Environment: Are you a person with lived experience of migration and/or occupation and have you witnessed how the development of technology for the global North is causing environmental issues with serious repercussions for your community? Do you witness the exploitation of workers in mines producing materials that are needed for the production of technology? Share with us.

The MTM fellowship program’s main goal is to support members of mobile communities or people in occupied spaces outside of Europe and North-America. We explicitly invite women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community to submit project ideas. Applicants that can identify with the aforementioned will be treated with priority.

How to Apply

Your application will be reviewed by our current fellows and the MTM team. We look forward to hearing from you before December 31st 2024!

For more information please check the Link

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Tags Innovations and Technology Research Advocacy Others