Migration and Technology Fellowship Program 2025 (Up to $30,000)

Deadline: December 31, 2024

Applications are open for the Migration and Technology Fellowship Program 2025. Through the third year of the Migration and Technology fellowship program, Migration + Tech Monitor aims to continue creating opportunities for people with lived experience of migration to meaningfully contribute to research, storytelling, policy, implementation of technology and advocacy conversations from the start, and not as an afterthought.

Among their aims is a collaborative, intellectual, and advocacy community committed to border and migration justice. They prioritize opportunities for participatory work, including the ability to pitch unique and relevant projects by affected communities themselves.

Fellows so far have worked on projects ranging from the utilization of WhatsApp and social media for resource sharing, to a chatbot designed to facilitate access to legal services, research and reporting on the surveillance of mobile and occupied communities, educational programs on digital rights and ICT skills, technical support for people on the move at borders, a social media platform dedicated to the memories of people on the move, and social media information services for migrant workers, among others.

Stipend

• Up to $30,000 for 12 months for successful applicants.

Eligibility

• You are currently in an active situation of forced migration, displacement (externally and internally), or occupation.
• You have arrived in your host community and find it hard to get access to resources for the implementation of an idea.
• Your lived experience of migration or displacement inspired you in the development of a project that will have a positive impact on mobile or migrated communities.

Technology already has and will have an ever-increasing impact on the life of all people. They are interested in a wide range of ideas that center the intersection of technology and migration, such as:

• Research: Do you need financial support for a research project that deals with the impact of technology on mobile, migrated, or occupied communities? They want to know more.
• Journalism: Are you a displaced, migrated or currently migrating journalist? Or are you a member of a community under forced occupation? Do you want to report on how technology is used in the field of migration? Explain how. 
• Culture: As a person with lived experience of migration, displacement or occupation, do you want to make the use of technology in these communities visible through a cultural project? Very interesting. What do you have in mind?
• Education: Do you want to use your story of migration, displacement, or occupation to teach future generations how to use and to protect themselves against technology? Do you want to use the intersection of migration and technology in order to create awareness in an educational setting? Tell them what you want to do.
• Tech-in-use: Do you have first-hand experience with how technology has made the life of people on the move or under occupation more difficult? Are you inspired to develop systems and projects that want to use technology in support of mobile communities?
• Tech and the Environment: Are you a person with lived experience of migration and/or occupation and have you witnessed how the development of technology for the global North is causing environmental issues with serious repercussions for your community? Do you witness the exploitation of workers in mines producing materials that are needed for the production of technology? Kindly share. 

Application

Rough ideas are more than welcome and they look forward to workshopping them with you. Copy/paste the following structure into a word document (preferably in English, but feel free to write in your native language).

• Project plan (up to 1200 words in total) 
  • Project field (choose one) 
Research I Journalism I Culture I Education I Tech-in-use I Tech and Environment / Other (fill in): 
  • What is your project about? Please give us a brief description of what you have in mind?
  • What is the intended effect of your project? Let them know.
  • Where, how, and possibly with whom do you want to implement your project? Just a couple of words, nothing has to be set in stone yet. 
  • What would you use the money for? Give us a vague idea of how to spend your grant. Traveling? Equipment? Personnel? Additional Education? Living expenses can also be factored into this calculation. A rough estimate is enough, we do not need an explicit budget. 
  • How will mobile or migrated communities benefit from your project? Let us know about your vision. 
• Personal statement (500 words in your language or video): Explain how your lived experiences inspired you to come up with your idea, what enables you to turn your project vision into reality, how and why you identify as a member of a mobile, migrated, or occupied community, and why you think the MTM should pick you.

Submit all materials (+ questions) to [email protected]

For more information, visit Migration and Technology Fellowship.