Research

Digitising identity: navigating the digital immigration system and migrant experiences

How has the digitalisation of immigration status affected migrants in the UK?

This project analysed the impact of the digitalisation of identification on migrants from different backgrounds and legal statuses. It used computational and qualitative research methods to test new methodological approaches for evaluating the digital immigration system as a ‘digital good’. By doing so, this research will help evaluate and improve ongoing administrative processes of digitalisation in the UK.

The project’s report shows that migrants are experiencing high levels of stress, fear, and exhaustion while attempting to digitalise their immigration status within short and shifting deadlines. The report tells migrants’ stories of being denied entry to the UK based on technical glitches, oversharing of personal information including refugee status, and parents not being able to register their children. Migrants share a general sense of confusion, combined with worries of being unable to prove legal status and a deep fear of losing their rights.

Migrants in the UK are the first group to experience a mandatory digital-only identification system, effectively positioning them as a testing ground for broader national digital ID ambitions.

Recommendations to the Home Office include:

• Stop experimental technology use on migrants
• Provide accessible support and multilingual guidance for migrants
• Protect privacy through data minimisation
• Provide non-digital alternatives to the eVisa system
• Create appeal and redress mechanisms
• Prevent unlawful status checks and casual surveillance

Read the project report Exclusion by design: digital identification and the hostile environment for migrants

Team

Dr Derya Ozkul, Assistant Professor in Sociology, University of Warwick

Dr Marie Godin, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Leicester

Dr Gabriele Pergola, Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing, University of Warwick

Sara Alsherif, Migrant Digital Justice Programme Manager, Open Rights Group

Nazek Ramadan, Director, Migrant Voice

Professor Arshad Jhumka, Professor of Distributed Systems, University of Leeds