United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that there are approximately 110 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, as of mid-2023, because of persecution, conflict, war, violence, human rights violations, or events seriously disturbing public order. These include 36.4 million refugees and 62.5 million internally displaced people (IDP), asylum seekers, and several other people in need of international protection. There is a strong history of research highlighting the issues faced by refugees, ranging from accounts of violence in the developing world, exploring the gendered experience of refugees, questioning racist thinking about immigration, case studies of asylum seekers, and philosophical inquiry into the fair treatment of refugees. The global refugee and forced migration crisis and the persistent challenges faced by these vulnerable communities call for an urgent need for innovative solutions that foster social inclusion and empower these populations.
In our field, information systems (IS) researchers have been acutely aware of the refugee and migrant crises. Researchers have examined the critical issues related to social inclusion of refugees, social inclusion and activation of refugee agency, information and communication technology (ICT) enabled refugee integration, refugees and pedagogy, digitization and refugee settlement, refugee women and information-precarity, and migrant identity. Nonetheless, recent research in refugee studies has shown that critical areas at the intersection of technology, refugees, and broader migration crises have remained underexamined, for example, social media and device vetting, digitally mediated lived experiences of minority refugees, refugees and a sense of uncertainty in the digital age, refugee aid and digital capitalism, and networked refugees.
We observe that despite some progress in our field, much remains underexplored in addressing these pressing issues, underscoring the need for rigorous research. This special issue aims to explore how IS research could contribute to illuminating the refugee crises and alleviating the deterioration of refugee and migrant social circumstances. These sensitive topics are situated within the broader debate on digital inclusion and empowerment and the discussions related to inequality and demarginalization and decolonization in our field.
Exploring the critical research questions surrounding IS and migrant/refugee populations is essential for developing comprehensive and ‘good’ IS solutions and making the world a better place for all of us. We encourage submissions from diverse researchers with multidisciplinary perspectives, including experts in IS, social sciences, public policy, humanitarian studies, and other relevant fields. Such interdisciplinary collaborations will contribute to a holistic understanding of the problems and foster innovative solutions. We seek submissions that focus on real-world issues at the intersection of refugees and migrant crises and technology.