Advanced digital technologies (ADTs) are transforming human mobility, simultaneously empowering humans, introducing new mechanisms of control and reinforcing existing lines of exclusion. Hosted by the Institute for Research on Migration and Society at Concordia University, the 2026 Annual Conference of the research program Migrant Integration in the Mid-21st Century: Bridging Divides will explore how advanced digital technologies mediate migrant journeys, from initial departure decisions to long-term integration and belonging.

Digital technologies shape migration journeys in intersecting ways. Social media and algorithms shape migration aspirations by making prospective destinations visible, while the labour market impact of automation can create incentives to move. Visa applications and other immigration processes increasingly occur online, from a distance and without face-to-face interactions. During transit between countries, digital forms of surveillance, data sharing protocols as well as algorithmic screening enable and limit human movement. When settling in a new country, migrants are now hyper-dependent on digital platforms to access government services, maintain social connections and find work.  

These technologies are allowing for new forms of human actualization. ADTs can create new opportunities for migrant political expression and transnational advocacy and promise to support the discovery of impactful interventions to facilitate integration, feeling of belonging and encourage naturalization. However, they are neither neutral, nor equally accessible. While some migrants are empowered by ADTs, these technologies can simultaneously reinforce exclusion through algorithmic bias or inaccessible interfaces. Moreover, global inequities in digital infrastructure and digital literacy, as well as different levels of state censorship and surveillance, shape migrants’ capacity to benefit from these technologies.   

This interdisciplinary conference brings together researchers, practitioners, and leaders from Canadian and international civil society, business, and government to examine how digital technologies create new possibilities for empowerment, yet also control and exclusion, across the migration journey.  

Concordia University is a partner institution in the Migrant Integration in the Mid-21st Century: Bridging Divides research initiative, hosted by the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS). Led by Toronto Metropolitan University, and executed in collaboration with University of British Columbia and University of Alberta, Concordia contributes its interdisciplinary research capacity to examine how migration, urbanization, technological change and labour markets intersect to shape policies and communities. The project is made possible through funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF).