Cfp for IMISCOE 2025 Panel: Ghostly Scripts: How algorithms impact the lives of migrants and transborder workers
Dear Group Members,
We are putting together a panel on algorithms for the next year's IMISCOE conference in Paris. The deadline is on 23 September, and thus, we ask all those interested to send us their 250-word abstracts by 17 September. Thank you!
Ghostly Scripts: How algorithms impact the lives of migrants and transborder workers
In an era dominated by data and technology, algorithms have emerged as critical decision-making tools, profoundly shaping the experiences of migrants and transborder workers. From border control systems and asylum applications to social services and employment screenings, algorithmic processes have become gatekeepers of opportunities and justice for those crossing international borders. Yet, these digital mechanisms often operate invisibly and, seemingly like ghosts, influence lives without transparency or accountability.
This panel will explore how algorithms, while often touted for efficiency and impartiality, frequently perpetuate biases, exacerbate inequalities, and render migrant communities and transborder workers vulnerable. Key questions will include: How do algorithms reinforce or challenge existing power dynamics at borders? What forms of discrimination arise from algorithmic profiling, and how can they be mitigated? What ethical standards and preassumptions stand behind algorithmic programming? How do migrants navigate and challenge the opaque and often dehumanising systems of automated decision-making? Finally, how do we best research algorithms beyond looking at the effects of their functioning?
Our panel aims to foster a multidisciplinary dialogue that interrogates the ethical and practical implications of these systems. Ultimately, we seek to uncover pathways for creating more just and equitable algorithmic infrastructures, ensuring that migrants are treated not as data points but as individuals with rights and dignity. We also aim to further the discussion on research methodologies that allow to decypher ethics, preassumptions and processes beyond algorithm creation, making them less =E2=80=98ghostly=E2=80=99 and more understandable.
We are looking for papers for our panel. If interested, please send a 250-word abstract to Piotr Goldstein goldstein@dezim-institut.de by 17 September.
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Dr Piotr Goldstein
Just published:
Goldstein, Piotr, and Yaron Matras. 2024. =E2=80=9CLanguage as a diasporic = stance: Polish in a migrant urban space.=E2=80=9D Journal of Ethnic and Migration S= tudies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2368846.
My earlier work on: everyday activism , visualising migrant activism , narratives and practices of diversity .
My ethnographic documentaries: Active (citizen) | Sp=C3=B3=C5=82dzi= elnia / Cooperative | Upcoming: Seeding change
