Abstract
Migration is one of the defining issues of the 21st century. Better data is required to improve understanding about how and why people are moving, target interventions and support evidence-based migration policy. Big data, defined as large, complex data from diverse sources, is regularly proposed as a solution to help address current gaps in knowledge. The authors participated in a workshop held in London, UK, in July 2019, that brought together experts from the United Nations (UN), humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs), policy and academia to develop a better understanding of how big data could be used for migration research and policy. We identified six key areas regarding the application of big data in migration research and policy: accessing and utilising data; integrating data sources and knowledge; understanding environmental drivers of migration; improving healthcare access for migrant populations; ethical and security concerns around the use of big data; and addressing political narratives. We advocate the need for careful consideration of the challenges faced by the use of big data, as well as increased cross-disciplinary collaborations to advance the use of big data in migration research whilst safeguarding vulnerable migrant communities.
Highlights
With the number of global refugees reaching the highest levels since the Second World War [1] and one billion migrants recorded in 2018 alone [2], human migration is high on the global political agenda
Big data sources can help to update internal migration statistics by addressing the significant gaps in quantity and quality of data collected from traditional methods [4,11]
When combined with field-level data derived from household surveys and key-informant networks, big data can be used to detect how sudden onset natural hazards and gradual environmental change impact migration patterns
Summary
With the number of global refugees reaching the highest levels since the Second World War [1] and one billion migrants recorded in 2018 alone [2], human migration is high on the global political agenda. There is great potential for big data to help in understanding and addressing environment-related displacement and to inform policies that will improve resilience to environmental change and support migration that is required to improve the health and livelihoods of vulnerable people. In such examples, improved data on both environmental change (as a driver of migration) and of migration itself (such as displacement following a natural hazard) cannot ‘solve the problem’ of forced environmental migration but can inform interventions such as aid as well as discussions between affected communities and stakeholders in devising context-appropriate solutions for the future.
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