Caring for Newcomers’ Data: Shifting Practices, Tensions, and Stories to Guide Action
Saguna Shankar
PhD Candidate – UBC School of Information
Wednesday, February 16
12:00 pm – 1 pm
Online via Zoom
[ Abstract ]
As individuals move through the immigration and settlement process in Canada, numerous points of data are generated. Governments, organizations, and researchers are interested in collecting and analyzing newcomers’ data to study and support immigration. At the same time, there are signs of changes in the ways that immigration and settlement data are being used, which include analyses of larger and linked data sets, and experimentation with algorithmic and automated systems (Achiume, 2020; Benjamin, 2016; Walia, 2021).
Within the context of these shifts, my research explores the practices of groups engaged in caring for newcomers and their data to better understand their concerns, interests, and ethical perspectives. In this talk, I share stories of care for newcomers’ data, as told by settlement service providers, migrant justice activists, immigration researchers, government staff, and designers of digital systems oriented towards newcomers.
[ Bio ]
Saguna Shankar is a doctoral candidate in Library, Archival, and Information Studies at UBC’s School of Information. She participates in the Public Scholars Initiative and works as Community Liaison Assistant at the Centre for Migration Studies. Her research brings together theories of practice and feminist care ethics to examine the use of data, information, and digital systems in the coordination of collective processes, focusing on the process of immigration in Canada. She is completing her dissertation and co-designing a narrative and visual resource to carry project findings forward into future dialogues on collecting and using newcomer communities’ data.
Saguna is an uninvited guest on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples (Vancouver, BC), and the lands cared for by the Seneca Nation as part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Buffalo, NY).
[ About the Migration Grad Student Power Hour ]
The Centre for Migration Studies Grad Student Power Hour provides opportunities for UBC graduate students to share their research on migration beyond their home departments and network with faculty and students from across the university and in the broader community sector. The Power Hour will begin with 10 minutes of networking opportunities, followed by a 30 minute talk and 20 minutes for discussion. Anyone is welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!
Please RSVP for this virtual event below.
