Does inclusion require settlement?
Lessons from studying healthcare for people on the move
If inclusion is about ensuring that everyone has the ability and opportunity to fully participate in social, economic and political life, then health is the foundation of inclusion. This is a recognised principle of the World Health Organization (WHO) which set out ‘Health for All’ as its goal in the 1970s and reaffirmed it in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic which highlighted the deadly toll of social inequalities.
This talk grapples with a challenge inherent in the aspiration to dismantle barriers to health and realise universal access to healthcare. It shows that national health systems have a sedentary bias, privileging settled populations over people on the move. Migrants, refugees and other people without a fixed place of residence are not easily accommodated within sedentary health systems, unless they achieve status similar to that of settled citizens. Connecting primary research in Poland on the accommodation of Ukrainian refugees in the Polish healthcare system to a larger comparative project on healthcare for people on the move, the talk argues that the bias in favour of settlement is detrimental to healthcare inclusion. In societies where the arrivals and movements of transient groups are increasingly the norm, healthcare infrastructures do not serve mobile populations, who often rely on grassroots aid and ad-hoc fixes to access the care that they need. Arguing for the de-sedentarisation of healthcare, and highlighting opportunities of both emerging and established digital technologies, this talk makes the case that lessons of healthcare are applicable to other social domains as well.
Karolina Follis is Professor in Politics and Society at Lancaster University, UK. She is a political anthropologist working in the interdisciplinary field of critical border studies. Her work has focused on the contradictions between citizenship, border regimes and human rights. In 2019-2021 she led the Wellcome Trust project Doctors within Borders: Networking Initiative on Mobile Populations within Health Systems setting a new research agenda on health and migration/mobility. She is the author of many publications, including in journals such as Cultural Anthropology, Journal of Human Rights and Science, Technology and Human Values (STHV). Most recently she co-edited the volume Migrant and Refugee Access to Health Systems: Challenging (Im)mobilities in Healthcare (E. Elgar 2025).
Tech at the Crossroads: Navigating Migration in a Digital World
The digital age is reshaping the landscape of migration, with technology increasingly influencing how migratory processes and experiences unfold. From digital identification systems, AI, and border surveillance to mobile applications that facilitate access to resources, technology has a direct impact on how migrants navigate their journeys, settle into new societies, and assert their rights. Digital tools also raise critical ethical concerns, including privacy risks, algorithmic bias, and barriers to digital access. State and non-state actors scrutinize social media activity and utilize digital identifications, registrations, and algorithmic sorting to verify migrants’ identities and determine their eligibility for rights, assistance, and services. Similarly, the disparity between digital connectivity initiatives by governing bodies and the actual adoption of technology by migrants is a real problem, resulting in technological designs and practices that undermine migrants’ voices and realities. At a time of rising anti-immigrant sentiment, digital precarity, and global mobility, understanding these complexities is crucial for developing inclusive and responsible technological solutions that empower migrant communities.
In this presentation, I focus on how migrants engage with digital technologies as they rebuild their lives in host countries. I highlight the reasons they may face digital obstacles and the ways governments have, whether intentionally or unintentionally, marginalized them. Additionally, I explore the strengths and weaknesses of existing bottom-up and top-down approaches to digitalization in migrant integration processes, particularly in Europe. l also discuss how digital technologies can be better aligned with migrants’ needs and aspirations, thereby enabling more efficient investments in designing technological interventions that leverage existing migrant support networks and foster collaboration with communities, all while ensuring transparency and trust, ultimately enhancing opportunities for migrant agency.
Dr. Amanda Paz Alencar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam, specializing in media, migration, and intercultural communication. Amanda is also the co-founder of Translocal Lives, a digital hub dedicated to investigating how technology shapes migration experiences through research, education, and collaborations. Her research examines how communication technologies influence the mobility and sociocultural integration of refugees in Western Europe, South America and East Africa. Amanda has been involved in numerous international research projects and has published extensively in journals such as International Journal of Communication and Media, Culture & Society.