Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating differential data collection among migrants, aid workers, and officials

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

Political and environmental turmoil have led to the displacement of individuals from their homes. Documenting mobile populations facilitates efforts to ameliorate the effects of displacement. Documentation of mobile populations is also challenging as individuals move through various temporary facilities and housing arrangements while en route.

Moreover, the traits of individuals – both migrants and those with whom migrants interact – affect how migrant characteristics and movements are documented, creating poorly understood variation in the process of documentation. This doctoral dissertation research uses theory from governance and cultural anthropology to understand how the intersections of individual attributes affect migrant interactions with aid workers and government officials.

In addition to supporting the training of a graduate student in anthropology in methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the project enhances scientific understandings by broadly disseminating its findings to relevant stakeholders and policy makers.

Specifically, this research project investigates how different data collection technologies are employed by aid workers and government officials as they interact with heterogeneous migrants. The doctoral student uses ethnographic and archival methods to answer research questions focusing on how aid workers and government officials understand and use data collection technologies, and how individual characteristics of the workers, officials, and migrants affect the use of different technologies.

These findings offer guidance to humanitarian actors, agencies, and policy makers interested in better understanding which data collection strategies and associated practices are most effective in achieving positive outcomes for individuals and communities affected by migration.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.