Category: Digital Inclusion - innovation - public interest technology - sector research

This May 2024 Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration conference brought together an interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral group of researchers and leaders from Canadian and international civil society, business and government to reflect on the implications of the rapid development of advanced digital technologies (ADTs) for migrant integration in Canada and around the world.

This P2P 2023 conference workshop presented preliminary findings of a multi-year evaluation of Together Project’s Welcome Group Program to understand the role technology plays in refugee settlement and integration, by comparing the experiences of Welcome Group matches that interact primarily virtually with those that interact both in-person and remotely. The Welcome Group Program matches volunteers with refugee newcomer households to provide social support over a period of six months.

I originally presented this at the Arab Community Centre of Toronto's Josoor Project Conference in March 2024: "Digital Inclusion: From Research to Application - Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies." You can view the video as well as read my full remarks in text.

This October 18, 2023 Future Skills Centre Community of Practice webinar was a peer learning group event created for professionals to discuss the evolving role of career development practitioners in the age of AI and strategies for effective AI tool integration into services.

This November 2023 Wellesley Institute webinar presents findings from the report Reimagining Funding and Service Delivery for Newcomers: Lessons from the Literature and Stakeholders. This project explored how newcomer settlement and integration outcomes are impacted by the current model of funding and service delivery.

This January 2023 goes over guidelines and best practices that Executive Directors (EDs) and leaders in the Settlement and Integration sector can adopt at their organizations to support and enhance staff capacity and techniques to overcome burnout but also to ensure higher retention rates.

This May 2023 CERC in Migration and Integration workshop brought together scholars from different disciplines to introduce their research on digital technologies and datafication in migration and to discuss its ambivalent and contradictory role for migrants compared to refugees, as well as the unsettling consequences of the use of datafication in bordering and policymaking.

In recent years there has been significant discussion of the “migration infrastructure”, notably the networks, institutions and organizations that mediate migration trajectories. This April 2024 CERC in Migration and Immigration workshop takes a radical critical approach on to examining these concerns, looking at how provision of local migrant services, whether in border areas, or locations of settlement, give rise to a migrant “integration business”. 

Someone wrote that no technology project team is complete without a social worker, because "Social work excels at understanding the entire system while also understanding the needs of the individual." In our sector, no technology project should be considered complete without front line workers and Newcomers present, for the same reason. We must centre staff and Newcomers in all technology-related planning and decision-making.