Prof. G. ‘Hari’ Harindranath was delighted to to moderate the ITCILO Labour Migration Academy webinar on Digitalisation and Fair Recruitment – Sharing Experiences held on 23 October 2025. This was attended by over 50 practitioners from around the world representing governments, employers, trade unions, and civil society groups. They were joined by three experts who shared national experiences of digitalising fair recruitment processes in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal:
Neha Choudhary discussed Nepal’s Foreign Employment Information Management System (FEIMS), designed to reduce information asymmetries in the labour migration supply chain by connecting migrant workers, recruiters, employers, and other relevant actors.
Rahnuma Salam Khan introduced Bangladesh’s Recruitment Agents’ Information Management System (RAIMS), which enhances oversight of recruitment agencies and intermediaries, promoting transparency and accountability.
Dr. K.V. Swamy (former GM, Overseas Manpower Company of Andhra Pradesh, India) shared his experiences with India’s eMigrate system, which connects and monitors all stakeholders involved in labour migration.
Key insights from the discussion
Key insights from the discussions were:
Digitalisation can be transformational for fair recruitment. It enables more integrated engagement across stakeholders in the labour migration cycle, improving data collection and analysis, increasing transparency and accountability, reducing migration costs, and offering quicker access to grievance resolution mechanisms.
However, these benefits cannot be taken for granted. Labour migration recruitment is complex and risk laden. Digital tools alone cannot eliminate exploitation or structural inequities. Successful digitalisation of fair recruitment requires significant groundwork, including:
A migrant-first approach, aligned with the principle of “nothing about us without us”
A whole-of-government approach to ensure policy coherence and a data governance approach to match
Organisational cultural change across stakeholders to enable new ways of working
Commitment to digital skills development and ensuring accessibility for all migrant workers
Complementary on-the-ground interventions to ensure inclusion of the most vulnerable, who are often least likely to benefit from digital systems
Ethical and privacy safeguards that underpin digital systems, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations and safeguarding migrant workers’ rights.
Hari would like to thank the ITCILO for convening this panel, all the participants and staff for their engagement, and particularly Elton Di Tommazi Maciel and Michela Albertazzi for inviting him to moderate the session.
Following our impact activities in Brazil during 2024, Prof Hari Harindranath returned to Rio de Janeiro in June/July 2025 to work with our local research partner, Dr Heloisa Melino, and organisations there for a series of follow-on activities funded by Royal Holloway’s Social Science Impact Accelerator (SSIA). These included three main activities.
1. Amplifying the impact of our work through artistic means
Efeito Urbano, an arts organisation and social project, based in the Providência favela of Rio de Janeiro, showcased a creative performance on digital safety in the periferias which drew on SSIA-funded work previously undertaken by Collective members, Prof Harindranath, Prof Tim Unwin and Dr Heloisa Melino and the experiences of the artists themselves with social networks and digital technologies.
Efeito Urbano is the first professional dance company in Morro da Providência and has developed its own concept of creation and research, Dança Urbana Negra Periférica, based on the pillars of race, gender and territory as well as traditional and contemporary Afro-referenced dances, in addition to the diverse expressions and cultural manifestations of experiences in the favelas and peripheries
The dancers put on a stunning performance capturing the intertwining of physical and digital lives in the favelas of Rio (link here to a short video). Choreographer Juliana Mello explained that the performance was a starting point for their new residency aimed at reflecting, through the language of dance, how the peripheral body navigates, resists and reinvents itself in the digital environment, with its strengths, pitfalls and invisibilities. Producer Ellen Pereira da Costa talked about the importance of engaging young people through artistic means to spread important messages such as the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech in their contexts which are often characterised by scams, identity theft and violence, both physical and online. Their aim was “to explore the potential of art as a languagethat activates different senses compared to textual narratives, by engaging the body and movement in the exchange of knowledge on a topic as urgent and necessary as this – particularly among vulnerable populations, who make up the core audience of Instituto Efeito Urbano”.
2. Extending our work on the safe, wise and secure use of digital technologies by vulnerable groups
This visit allowed us to extend our work on digital safety nasperiferias from our earlier focus on communities in the Maré favela of Rio de Janeiro to young people in the Morro da Providência favela and the surrounding areas. Following the Efeito Urbano performance, Hari and Heloisa led a workshop on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech by vulnerable groups with some of the artists and members of the audience. Participants were keen to share their online experiences with each other and through the creation of a series of short videos.
3. Evidencing the impact of our ongoing work
We undertook an Outcomes Meeting to gather qualitative feedback on impacts and outcomes from our activities during 2024 with our main partner organisation, Casa Resistências in the Maré favela of Rio. The team at Casa Resistências, an LBT advocacy organisation and a shelter for women fleeing violence and abuse, had previously collaborated with us on activities relating to the safe, wise and secure use of digital technologies nas periferiasincluding a workshop led by Dr Heloisa Melino and the creation of a range of beautiful resources on digital safety designed by local graffiti artist, JLo. These and related activities were aimed at helping activists and others remain safe online while they report on rights violations and undertake their advocacy campaigns. Hari’s visit offered the opportunity to reflect on our activities and their impacts and outcomes.
Kimberly Veiga from Casa Resistências explained that our collaboration had helped build capacity and enabled them to undertake further activities with local partners such as Fiocruz University on online safety for activists and others in the favelas. She spoke of the impact of online harms for people in her context including online scams, digital identity theft and violence.
This collaboration has allowed us to think about technology as a route to access rights and it has opened another avenue for us to obtain wider support… It has helped us connect with wider networks of support. We now exchange experiences and access support from across the country, including psychological and therapeutic care…Thanks to this collaborative work, we have now created a new agenda on digital for our organisation
Kimberly Veiga, Casa Resistências
Kimberly spoke of the cascading effect of our collaboration that led them to undertake activities relating to the challenges faced by lesbian mothers and the creation of trustworthy resources to support them, similar to the ones we helped create on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech by vulnerable groups in the Brazilian periferias. Fernanda highlighted the importance of our resources not only as a means to disseminate messages on online safety at all the events they attend but also as a means to enhance the visibility of the broader advocacy work being undertaken by Casa Resistências.
The visit also enabled Hari and Heloisa to meet with Voz das Comunidades, a community media organisation based in the Complexo do Alemão (Alemão complex of favelas in Rio) where they presented their ongoing work on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech in the peripheries. The team at Voz shared their experiences of working in the challenging context of the favelas and the importance of physical and online safety as they go about recording and reporting on community matters.
Voz das Comunidades and their Social Impact team expressed interest in working with us in the future. So, watch this space!
In summary, our impact agenda in Brazil funded by SSIA has allowed us to work with multiple organisations and communities in the peripheries of Rio to spread awareness on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech by vulnerable groups, helped build capacity of both individuals and organisations and reach a broader range of groups through engaging workshops and creative activities and multimedia outputs relevant to the local contexts in Brazil. Hari hopes to continue further collaborative work in Brazil with Heloisa given the interest and enthusiasm shown by local organisations.
We are delighted to share the news that Profs G. ‘Hari’ Harindranath and Tim Unwin have received the award for “Best Collaborative and Innovation Research Project” from Royal Holloway, University of London for 2025 at their annual Festival of Research on 19th June for their ongoing research-practice with many other organisations across four continents on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech in marginalised/peripheral communities, working especially with migrants and refugees. [The background to the image on the right is from one of their visits to the UNESCO offices in Nepal in 2023]
Their ‘project project was informed by social science research and resulted in the generation of interventions and training resources that were adopted by community groups and NGOs’ … To deliver outputs at scale, they have ‘engaged innovatively with international stakeholders, including third sector organisations (NGOs), international bodies (UNESCO, IOM, ILO) and key industry partners (community tech organisations). The sheer size, scale and duration of project activities are testament to the hard work’ they have invested. ‘Generating partnerships on such a global scale will not have come without its challenges, so [they] should be incredibly proud of [their] achievements in undertaking such a huge project’
Awards citation for research collaboration and innovation, Royal Holloway, University of London
More details of their work can be seen as follows:
Their main contributions on migrant use of digital tech within the UKRI GCRF funded MIDEQ project (2019-2024) can be fiund through these links:
Links to main work in Nepal (including freely available resources)
Guidance for small civil society organisations in English and Portuguese (for Mozambique)
Many organisations are contributing to this ongoing research, and full acknowledgement to them all is given in the links above.
A list of selected academic publications relating to this research:
Lorini, M.R., Harindranath, G. and Unwin, T. (2025) Responsible Digital: Co-Creating Safe, Wise and Secure Digital Interventions with Vulnerable Groups, Information Systems Frontiers, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10796-025-10611-4
Harindranath, G., Unwin, T., Lorini, M.R. (2024). The Design and Use of Digital Technologies in the Context of South–South Migration, in: Crawley, H. and Teye, J.K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of South–South Migration and Inequality, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39814-8_23
Harindranath, G. , Unwin, T. and Lorini, M.R. (2023) Rethinking digital tech policy for (and with) migrants, Chapter 8 in: UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) and MIDEQ (Migration for Development and Equality) Migration and Inequality in the Global South: Evidence from the MIDEQ Hub, Geneva: UNRISD, 36-40.
Harindranath, G. and Unwin, T. (2022) Digital technologies, migration and the SDG agenda, in: Piper, N. and Ditta, K. (eds) Elgar Companion to Migration and the SDGs, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (in press)
Unwin, T., Marcelin, L.H., de Souza e Silva, J., Otero, G., Lorini, M.R., Anyadi, C., Gonçalves, D.M., Sato, D.P. and Harindranath, G. (2022) Uses of digital technologies by migrants from Haiti and to Brazil, Egham: UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, Royal Holloway, University of London, Working Papers No.4.
Majidi, N., Kasavan, C. & Harindranath, G. (2021) In support of return and reintegration? A roadmap for a responsible use of technology, in: McAuliffe, M. (ed.) Research Handbook on International Migration and Digital Technology, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 220-236.
Unwin, T., Ghimire, A., Yeoh, S-G., New, S.S., Kishna, S.S., Gois, W., Lorini, M.R. and Harindranath, G. (2021) Uses of digital technologies by Nepali migrants in Malaysia, Egham: UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, Royal Holloway, University of London, Working Papers No.1.
Harindranath, G. and Unwin, T (2019), Digital technologies and migration: Reducing inequalities or creating new ones?, TREO Talk, International Conference on Information Systems, 15th December, Munich, Germany.
Harindranath, G. (2019) Digital technologies, migration and inequality, Presentation, Copenhagen Business School-Royal Holloway School of Management Joint Workshop, 16th September, Royal Holloway, UK.
To find out more about our work, do get in touch through our Contact Page.
As part of our contribution to the UKRI GCRF funded MIDEQ project (2019-24), members of the ICT4D Collective (Dr. Maria Rosa Lorini, Prof. Tim Unwin and Prof. G ‘Hari’ Harindranath) worked with colleagues at the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa (SIHMA) in Cape Town to help train a group of migrants in video production. Our overall research-practice explored how migrants in South Africa (and other countries) wanted to use digital tech to improve their lives, and one of the things that these migrants to South Africa wished to learn was how to make better quality videos about their lives, their work and how to use digital tech safely (see here for more information).
Launch of Through Their Lives, in Cape Town, January 2024.
One output of this work was a powerful 30 minute film about their lives and aspirations entiteld Through Their Lives. Another was their creation of the Fusion Avenue channel on YouTube where they continue to post useful videos on all aspects of migrant life, as well as the safe use of digital tech. We also sought to introduce these migrants to organisations who might be able to use and further develop the skills they had gained, not least so that our work would have more sustainable outcomes lasting beyond the limited period of GCRF funding. A return visit to South Africa in October 2024 provided a valuable opportunity to explore ways further to enhance this process.
We have been delighted recently to receive positive and constructive feedback from SIHMA about how this work has continued, without our direct involvement.
Through your funding, we were able to support a group of migrant amateur media practitioners to co-create a series of short videos reflecting experiences and perspectives of people on the move. The project unfolded with both valuable successes and learning opportunities. (Fr. Filippo Ferraro, SIHMA Executive Director)
Our MIDEQ funding had only provided limited resources for training the migrants on the ground, and ideally we would have liked to have worked with them for longer in a more sustained way to provide greater opportunities for them to practise and develop their video making skills (see their Fusion Avenue channel). It was also not always easy for the migrants to participate in the training and find the time to practise, especially given their needs to balance such training with their other day to day tasks and income generating activities. Our initial training undoutedly enhanced their skills (see their reflections on outomes of our work together eight months after the end of MIDEQ), and has enabled many of them to improve their business profiles on social media. However, it was insufficient for them to acquire the level of skills necessary to produce video work of sufficient quality to earn a living from this alone. We were delighted, though, that SIHMA was able to support them and help to improve their skills. Through a small amount of further funding from us they were also able to provide new equipment for the migrants to improve the quality of their videos on Fusion Avenue. These challenges were again highlighted by SIHMA:
While the initial recordings were promising, a number of videos required reshooting and further editing to meet the desired quality. In response, we engaged an experienced external migrant collaborator to assist with editing and technical guidance. This collaboration greatly enhanced the final production outcomes. We also welcomed new participants, since we were not able to connect with those previously interviewed. They contributed fresh perspectives through interviews, enriching the diversity and authenticity of the narratives. To ensure sustainable impact, we purchased video equipment for Fusion Avenue that enabled them to produce content of a higher standard — an investment that we believe will support future initiatives beyond the scope of this project. (Fr. Filippo Ferraro, SIHMA Executive Director)
This crucially show the importance of continued support to migrants in helping them gain new skills, and we are immensely grateful to SIHMA for this crucial contribution.
Five videos were produced as a contribution to SIHMA’s “Narratives on human mobility” and “Atlas of African Migration”, and these are also available below (just click on the images below to watch the videos):
We are delighted that after a long process of ensuring that the quality and content were approproate, SIHMA was able to conclude that:
The final deliverables include a set of completed videos that stand as a testament to the creativity, resilience, and talent within migrant communities. These videos will be hosted on our SIHMA website and included in the initiatives “Narratives on human mobility” and “Atlas of African Migration”. This initiative has not only strengthened our training and outreach efforts, but it has also empowered beneficiaries with new technical skills and confidence in self-expression. (Fr. Filippo Ferraro, SIHMA Executive Director)
We look forward to continuing our work with migrants across southern Africa, to explore further how they can use digital tech to contibute positively to their lives. For our wider work on the Safe, Wise and Secure use of digital tech by economically poorer and more marginalised people across the world do access our resources here.
Building on our research-practice in the MIDEQ Hub, funded by the UKRI GCRF, between 2019 and 2024, we have been working with colleagues in Brazil during 2024 to reversion and develop resources on the safe, wise and secure use of digital technologies. These were originally created with migrants and migrant organisations in Nepal and South Africa, but discussions with Dr. Heloisa Melino in Rio de Janeiro in September 2023 suggested that they could also be useful for those living nas periferias of Brazil. Subsequent funding from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through its Social Science Impact Accelerator at Royal Holloway, University of London, enabled us to put this into action, and following design workshops in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in April 2024, a series of new resources were developed in formats that would be appealing, especially for the LBT community in Maré.
These resources were launched on 12th September at the Casa Resistências in Maré, Rio de Janeiro. This was a vibrant occasion and provided important validation both of the value of these resources, and of their significance especially for the LBT community. Huge thanks are due to our friend and colleague, Heloisa Melino, for all the work that she did in co-ordinating and delivering this inspirational event (see images below).
Participants in the launch workshop were eager to express their views about the value and importance of these materials, and created these inspiring videos (in Portuguese):
For more information about this research-practice do click in the links below:
Many research (and practical) projects finish when the funding finishes; researchers and organisations quickly move on to the next source of funding, and new ideas. Even those who have the best intentions to measure real outcomes, rather than just outputs, very often do not have the time or funding to do so. As part of the UKRI GCRF funded MIDEQ initiative (2019-2024), members of the ICT4D Collective were from the beginning eager to try to work differently in their research with migrants on how digital technologies might be used to reduce inequalities. Some of our discussions around this have been published in our working paper Unwin, Casentini, Harindranath and Lorini (2023), but funding from a Research England Block Grant, the ICT4D Collective, and our own personal resources has recently enabled “Hari” Harindranath and Tim Unwin to return to South Africa in September and October 2024, eight months after MIDEQ funding had ceased, to meet with organisations and migrants in Johannesberg and Cape Town to learn from them about the outcomes of our work so far, and what lessons we mght learn from our engagement together, so that we can improve similar work that we might undertake in the future. Our findings are briefly summarised at https://ict4d.org.uk/technology-inequality-and-migration/zaoutcomes/, which includes some encouraging and inspirational videos from the migrants with whom we worked.
It is evident from their comments that our research-practice has indeed had many positive outcomes on their lives, interestingly not necessarily direly to do with digital tech, but more in terms of self-confidence, knowledge sharing and community building. However, the number of migrants with whom our team (Maria Rosa Lorini, Tim Unwin and “Hari” Harindranath) actually worked together was relatively small. The challenge remains as to how we can continue to support them to extend this work on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech more widely, thereby making it more sustainable into the future. It is clear that nothing works without some funding, and relying on volunteers is rarely ever sustainable.
For our free resources on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech on different themes and in multiple languages, see: https://ict4d.org.uk/sws/.
In the final months of our MIDEQ WP9 team’s interventions working with migrants in South Africa, a remarkable phenomenon emerged — a “yeast effect” that represented the catalytic effect of the impact of colaboration between academia, NGOs, migrant communities and individual participants. This effect symbolises the organic growth and replication of positive outcomes, as individuals who were initially trained by our team together with local colleagues and experts became catalysts for change within their own communities and associations.
Adapting and Propagating Learning Materials
One of the cornerstones of our intervention was the adaptation and propagation of learning material used in the initial workshops we organised and ran. Recognizing the importance of tailoring educational resources to local contexts, we worked with local educators and experts and with the initial participants to create relevant learning material on issue relating to the use of digital tech by migrants. A special focus was on security and safety online and on content creation (to see more about our initiative and trainings), ensuring their accessibility and relevance to the communities we and they served.
After a series of workshops run by our team between November 2022 and August 2023, some of the trainees started organising sessions and training people in their own communities. During presentations to different audiences, such as chairmen of migrant associations, women community leaders, NGOs representatives and teenagers, the new trainers further adapted the learning material to suit the specific needs and understandings of each group. All examples were carefully crafted to resonate with the audience and address their concerns, responding to feedback from local stakeholders and demonstrating their commitment to meeting emerging challenges and empowering individuals with relevant skills and knowledge.
Furthermore, the team of trainers began developing new PowerPoint presentations that addressed frequently asked questions and were designed to be engaging and captivating for the public. Some examples of these slides are illustrated below.
From the Power Point Presentation created by the Fusion Avenue team in Johannesburg
From the Power Point Presentation created by the Fusion Avenue team in Cape Town
Targeted Events, Outreach, Collaborations and Partnerships
Our efforts encompassed a diverse range of events such as documentary presentations (see our blog about recent events) and targeting specific groups of stakeholders. From migrants and migrant associations to local communities, international organizations, academics, and media, we engaged with a wide spectrum of audiences to ensure the broad dissemination of knowledge and resources. A key highlight of this part of the intervention was the implementation of peer-to-peer knowledge sharing initiatives. Through video creation and dissemination, as well as face-to-face workshops run by migrants for migrants, we witnessed at first hand the power of community-led education. Individuals who were trained in our initial workshops took on leadership roles, becoming educators and advocates within their own communities. This is how the Fusion Avenue team of trainers presents and sponsors their work to support more organisations and communities:
Central to the success of these interventions was a spirit of collaboration and partnership. We worked closely with local stakeholders such as the Adonis Musati Project, international organizations such as the Scalabrini Centre, academia and research institutes such as SIHMA, and migrant associations such as MAGSA to leverage collective expertise and resources. This collaborative approach not only enhanced the effectiveness of our interventions but also fostered a sense of ownership and created the bases for the continuation and sustainability of the activities within the communities we served. This collaboration of groups from 12 different African countries represents a significant step forward in fostering solidarity and collective action among diverse migrant communities.
Together, they are now working on a common agenda in Johannesburg and Cape Town related to the safe, secure, and wise use of digital technologies, as well as communication skills and changing the narratives around migration. This collaboration represents a significant step forward in fostering solidarity and collective action among diverse migrant communities.
Measuring Impact and Ensuring Sustainability
The impact of the intervention was quantifiable, with hundreds of individuals already having been trained and reached through the different activities convened by the migrants with whom we worked. More than 200 people have been trained during the last 5 months by 12 of the 30 trainees in our original workshops. The rest of the participants are using the acquired skills to get a job and to fulfil their personal aims.
The majority of the activities carried on by the ‘new trainers’ covered more than one 4-hours session with each group of people. This approach ensured sufficient knowledge transmission, not least by allocating enough time to do practical exercises during the session including such things as how to change the settings on personal social media accounts. It also enabled the testing of information reception during the re-cap done by the trainees at the start of every new session.
Every participant completed a feedback form to give back impressions on the quality of the activity and suggestions for improvements. In the case of school teachers, community leaders and representatives of organisations and associations, the learning material was always requested by the trainees so that they could further disseminate the lessons learned (all our materials were created using Creative Commons BY-SA licenses). Some interviews and appreciative letters also witness this commitment. The administrator of the Congolese Society of South Africa Diana Bongongo highlights below what she learned from our trainees – now trainers! – and how she will herself become another yeast of change!
Integration of lessons learned into existing programmes
As part of our commitment to knowledge exchange and continuous improvement, we have shared our journey through a documentary film covering our interventions in South Africa. Additionally, we leveraged social media and collaborated with research hubs and NGOs to disseminate videos created by migrants, ensuring that our learnings reached a wider audience and had a lasting impact. But perhaps more importantly, our focus was on ensuring the continuation of these activities beyond the intervention period. Through partnerships with local stakeholders (including migrant organizations, associations, community leaders, local media companies, and school teachers) and integration of training resources into existing programs, we laid the groundwork for long-term sustainability and community empowerment. Our learning material is for instance now being used by the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town, which reaches out to 1,500 migrants trained face-to-face yearly. Cape Town TV is also supporting the dissemination of the videos produced as well as the preparation of focused programs on migration.
Additionally, local non-migrant organizations such as Ubuntu Bethu have been instrumental in deploying workshops on digital safety and content creation in marginalized communities where many migrants reside. These partnerships have expanded the reach of our intervention to people living with constraints and limited access to the type of support and trainings offered elsewhere, and provide much needed advice for job search in areas with more than 50% rate unemployment, and for online safety in area of high gender based violence. The new partnerships and collaboration have also sparked further discussions around inequalities faced by migrants in areas affected by severe deprivation for all residents, furthering our collective efforts for social change.
In conclusion, the yeast effect of our intervention exemplifies the transformative potential of collaborative efforts in uplifting migrants and the wider communities in which they live. By harnessing the power of community engagement, peer-to-peer learning, and targeted outreach, we not only empowered individuals but also laid the foundation for sustainable change that will continue to flourish long after the intervention has ended.
This second segment centred on the secure utilization of information technology for safe migration, and featured Swarna Kumar Jha, the Coordinator of the National Network for Safe Migration-NNSM Nepal, and Sindhu Aryal, the Secretary General of Pourakhi Nepal, both of whom have worked tirelessly with us over the last couple of years in helping to develop the https://pardesi.org.np portal and training resources on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech (as part of the work of the MIDEQ Hub funded by UKRI GCRF). It was broadcast on February 17, 2024, immediately following the Sajha Khabar news bulletin at 7 am, as part of their regular programme “Sajha Nepal”. It has already garnered 243 views on their Facebook channel. However, “Sajha Khabar” is also distributed to over 300 community radio stations throughout Nepal, reaching over 6.7 million people, which will significantly extend the reach of the social media channel for this episode.
The programme also incorporates vox pops from survivors who have recounted their challenges while employed as migrant workers, and a report presented by Ms. Sushila Shrestha (from the 19:10-minute mark to the 22:20-minute mark) greatly enhances the programme’s interest.
We were delighted to convene public launches on 15th January in Johannesburg and on 18th January in Cape Town for the interventions on which we have worked with migrants and migrant organisations in South Africa. The same format was followed in each location and included four main elements:
Premiere of a documentary film about the lives of the migrants with whom we have been working, entitled Through Their Eyes and produced by Simone Zanetti and Maria Rosa Lorini;
Presentation of videos made by the migrants following training by our work package, and introduction to their YouTube channel Fusion Avenue which features all the videos that they have made;
Information about the training they have been doing for others on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech, following the training that they have received from our work package; and
Refreshments and networking.
These interventions were conceived and facilitated by the Digital Technologies and Migration work package (WP9) of the MIDEQ Hub funded by the UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). WP9 is led by Professor G. “Hari” Harindranath and Professor Tim Unwin CMG, with the support of Dr. Maria Rosa Lorini (who led the work in South Africa), based at the ICT4D Collective (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK). The resources were created collaboratively with migrants and organisations in both the Johannesburg and Cape Town regions, including the Scalabrini Centres in Cape Town and Johannesburg, the University of Cape Town, UNISA’s Information Systems Department, Stoneintheshoe, Rainbow Media, and SIHMA. Other organisations involved in the initiative have included Adonis Musati, Cape Town TV, Ubunti-Bethu, and JL Zwane
Johannesburg launch, 15th January
The Johannesburg launch was held at St Patrick’s Catholic Curch in La Rochelle (press release), and attracted people from the local community, migrants, universities and international organisations (click on arrows to go through the slide deck).
Cape Town launch, 18th January
The Cape Town launch was held at Bertha House, Mowbray (press release), and likewise attracted people from the local community, migrants, universities and international organisations (click on arrows to go through the slide deck).
Hari Harindranath and Tim Unwin with migrants, migrant organisations and tech organisations in Kathmandu, January 2023
The UNESCO Chair in ICT4D leads Work Package 9 within the MIDEQ Hub (funded by UKRI GCRF) on technology, inequality and migration. This is explicitly an intervention package, designed to draw on research across the Hub to bring migrants, migrant organisations and tech developers together to craft practical interventions that can benefit their lives and reduce inequalities associated with migration. We have been working with NISER, our lead partner in Nepal, since 2019 undertaking research on how migrants already use digital tech (see our working papers), and building on this work Prof “Hari” Harindranath and Dr. Maria Rosa Lorini visited Nepal in September 2020 to initiate our intervention activities. Migrants identified two main areas where they felt that interventions could make a significant difference: appropriate training in the uses of safe, wise and secure digital tech, and creating a platform or portal as a digital one-stop-shop that would bring together the most important sources of information for Nepali migrants and ther families.
Hari returned to Nepal with Tim Unwin in January-February 2023 to convene workshops (on 28 and 29 January, and 3rd February) and meetings to take forward the implementation of these two interventions. Good progress was made in the following areas (further details here):
Designing the content structure for the platform, and setting in motion the work of the content team and the tech team who are going to take forward the digital one-stop-shop with a Beta version planned for May 2023.
Running a pilot workshop in Kathmandu for migrants based on the slide deck developed with migrant organisations over the previous couple of months. This was well received, with helpful comments having been suggested for improvement.
Running another workshop in Pokhara for students and staff from a Migrant Resouce Centre, which recommended that we need to develop a more basic introduction to the wise, safe and secure use of digital tech for those who have negligible prior knowledge of digital tech.
This visit to Nepal also provided the valuable opportunity to have a very productive visit to colleagues in the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu (30 January), to sign a partnership agreement and discuss collaborative research-practice with Gandaki University in Pokhara (1-2 February), to meet with tech companies including Hamro Patro and Ncell (3 February), to explore collaboration with government initiatives through the Foreign Employment Board (31 January), to engage with colleagues at the National Innovation Centre (31 January), and to meet with fellow researchers working in the field of digital tech and migration (see images below).
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who attended our workshops, and who contributed to this work. We are also grateful to the staff at the Hotel Himalaya, Lalitpur and the Landmark Hotel in Pokhara for facilitating our stay and meetings – and would recommend both for anyone visiting Kathmandu and Pokhara respectively.
Profs “Hari” Harindranath and Tim Unwin were delighted to visit colleagues at the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu during their recent visit to Nepal (26 January – 5th February) as part of our contribution to the work of the MIDEQ Hub (funded by the UKRI GCRF). This provided an excellent opportunity for them to brief the UNESCO Office team about our MIDEQ-related work in Nepal, and also the wider activities of our UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, including the use of digital tech in education, TEQtogether, and the Digital-Environment System Coalition. It was a real pleasure to learn from Michael Croft (Director) and his team about the various activitites on which the Office focuses, and to discuss ways of collabroating in the future.
We are already building on this visit, and are very grateful to them for their advice on developing training materials and a portal for Nepali migrants and their families to gain information about all aspects of the migration process. This visit was such a good example of how UNESCO Chairs can work closely with UNESCO’s offices around the world to help achieve the organisation’s overall goals. We were made to feel so welcome, and the conversations were full of enthusiasm and passion for how UNESCO and its Chairs can contribute together to support Nepal’s people. We very much hope that other colleagues in our UNESCO Chair as well as our partners will also consider ways through which they too can support the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu.
Members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D are leading Work Package 9 of the MIDEQ hub (funded by UKRI GCRF and Royal Holloway, University of London) and are exploring how digital tech can be used to reduce the inequalities associated with migration, especially in four corridors: Nepal-Malaysia, Ethiopia-South Africa, China-Ghana, and Haiti-Brazil. The fourth of our working papers presenting data on the Uses of digital technologies by migrants from Haiti and to Brazil has just been published within the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D’s publication series. Key findings and abstract are as follows.
Key findings
1.Context matters: groups of migrants from different countries and backgrounds use digital tech in varying ways and for different purposes. There is no such thing as one size fits all.
2.Many migrants aspire to use digfital tech for educational and employment purpose – yet these are things that digital tech could already be readily used for if they knew how.
3.Most migrants focused on the use of digital tech for increasing economic well-being – none specifically addressed their potential for reducing inequalities.
Abstract
This working paper is the fourth in the series produced as part of the output of Work Package 9 on technology, inequality and migration within the MIDEQ Hub, a multi-disciplinary research project in 12 countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia, including the Haiti-Brazil migration corridor. It presents the results of three iterations of an online survey totalling 372 respondents most currently living in Brazil, and mainly from Haiti; 92.7% of those who reported their status identified themselves as migrants, with the remainder being family members of migrants (5.5%) or returned migrants (1.8%). Following a summary of the methodology, which explains the impact of COVID-19 on our research practice and why an online survey was used to replace our originally planned interviews and focus groups, the paper provides an overview of the most important results and an exploratory data analysis, focusing on the potential influence of age, gender, countries of origin, migration status, and occupational status on the ways in which respondents use digital technologies and for what purposes. Three important conclusions for the subsequent stages of our research on the inequalities associated with migration and how digital tech may be used to reduce these are: first, the migrants responding to this survey are from very different backgrounds, and these differences have a strong influence on their use of digital tech; second, many migrants aspire to use digital tech for purposes that they could readily do if they knew how; and third, none of the migrants specifically identified inequality or equity as issues that they would like to use digital tech to address.
To read this paper in full (v.4 .pdf) please use this link.
Other UNESCO Chair in ICT4D Publications are available here.
ICT4D Collective 