Zarif Masud

PhD Student at the Faculty of Information

Immigration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Writing · Book chapter (2026)

This book chapter surveys the growing use of AI and digital technologies across the immigration lifecycle, from forecasting migration flows and automating application processing to biometric border control and risk-scoring systems. It situates these developments within broader debates on algorithmic governance, discrimination, and the rights of migrants.

Focus

  • Mapping where and how AI systems are being deployed in immigration and border management (e.g., triage, fraud detection, risk assessment, chatbots).
  • Examining the motivations behind automation—efficiency, security, cost-cutting—and how they intersect with political and economic interests.
  • Documenting harms and risks to migrants: opacity, bias, surveillance, lack of recourse, and the erosion of due process and privacy.
  • Bridging technical perspectives (e.g., explainability, accountability) with insights from migration studies, critical race scholarship, and data justice.

Key Themes

  • Explainability and transparency: Limits of interpretability in AI-based decision systems and the need for meaningful explanations for migrants and advocates.
  • Accountability and redress: Gaps in oversight, appeal mechanisms, and institutional responsibility when AI systems make or shape immigration decisions.
  • Coloniality and technocolonialism: How data infrastructures and predictive systems can reproduce historical hierarchies and unequal mobility regimes.
  • Alternatives: Possibilities for rights-based, participatory, and accountable uses of digital technologies in support of migrants.

Status and Outputs