Immigrants and Transnational Computing Practices
Exploring how immigrants leverage digital technologies to exercise political agency, maintain cultural ties, and resist systemic exclusion across transnational borders.
Outcome
CHI 26, DIS 26, CSCW 25, Submitted, and Submitted
Overview
This project moves beyond the traditional focus on host-country integration to explore how Global South communities exercise political and economic agency across borders through digital and financial infrastructures. We examine how migrants leverage technology to remain active participants in homeland politics, challenging the notion that activism is geographically bound to a physical site.
Approach
We employ semi-structured interviews and trace ethnography to study digital diasporas, such as the non-resident Bangladeshi community. Our work adopts a systems-approach to investigate the “residual mobilities” of displaced actors–those navigating socio-cultural, psychological, and spiritual transformations post-migration. We also utilize co-design sessions to develop inclusive technologies tailored to the unique geopolitical constraints faced by immigrant organizations
Key Contributions
A major contribution is the concept of “diasporic superposition,” which theorizes how immigrants navigate hybrid positionalities of privilege (e.g., economic stability in the Global North) and vulnerability (e.g., state surveillance in the homeland). We have documented how remittances serve as instruments of political resistance, such as coordinated boycotts to challenge state authority. Furthermore, we identified systemic “infrastructural immobilities” that exclude immigrant nonprofits from critical digital and AI ecosystems. Finally, we developed the AMINA assistant, an artifact designed to support the operational needs and credibility of marginalized immigrant groups while countering politically charged misinformation.