Welcoming the THIRD Cohort of Fellows at the Migration and Technology Monitor

April 24, 2025

In these difficult times, we know it can be hard to keep up hope. However, today we do have a bit of good news to share:

We are thrilled to welcome our third cohort of fellows at the Migration and Technology Monitor! After a thorough review of the 510 applications we received from all around the world, the 2024 cohort of fellows chose their next five colleagues through a series of meetings, shortlists, and interviews of the final ten candidates. The selection process was especially competitive this year, with so many incredible projects that people shared with us. 

So many countries represented in the application pool!

Ultimately, the community decided on a cohort that is as diverse as possible, both in terms of geography but also representative of people’s lived experiences of displacement and occupation. 

Joining us this year are:

Sophia Amimo is the founder of Domestic Workers Returnees of Kenya, an organization assisting migrant workers who return to Kenya after facing exploitation in the Middle East and other regions. As a returnee herself, Sophia observed how digital technologies are increasingly used to surveil, manipulate, and take advantage of migrant workers, often with little regard for their dignity and rights. In her project, Sophia will engage in storytelling, investigative reporting, and grassroots outreach to highlight how the lived experiences of returnee workers and expose the hidden technological barriers they encounter.

Aqila Abdelkarim is a medical and mental health professional with a vision to enhance and simplify access to mental health services across East Africa. Beyond her clinical expertise, she passionately advocates for the transformative power of art, promoting self-expression through creativity as an essential tool for emotional well-being. Her project seeks to find technical solutions for gaps in mental health care, support refugees and people-on-the-move, challenge stigma, and introduce fresh, engaging approaches to healing and mental wellness. 

Abid is a multidisciplinary researcher focused on social justice, technology, and inclusive development in Jammu and Kashmir. With a Bachelor’s in Media Studies and a Master’s in Social Work, he has advanced disability inclusion, climate action, and digital rights through roles at various organizations. His work bridges grassroots narratives and policy, recognized by grants and fellowships across Asia. Abid's project will explore the intersection of technology, surveillance and advocating for ethical frameworks that protect digital dignity.  

Issa Amro is a human rights defender based in Hebron, Occupied West Bank. Issa is the co-founder of the direct action group Youth Against Settlements. Amro has received widespread international recognition for his work to encourage peaceful resistance against Israeli occupation, won the Right Livelihood Award 2024 and is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025. As a 2025/26 MTM fellow, Issa will continue to map technologies of occupation in Hebron.

Nuria Arias is from Honduras, a mother of three, and currently lives in Minnesota. In 2018, she applied for asylum in the United States and her case is still pending, which makes her life an everyday struggle. She hopes to be free of these systematic chains soon.  
Ever Martinez is from Latin America, a dedicated listener who loves creating things. For their MTM fellowship, together with Pueblos de Lucha y Esperanza, Nuria and Ever are working on a graphic novel about their experiences with carceral technologies in US immigration detention.

Would you like to get in touch with our new fellows? Please email is at press@migrationtechmonitor.com and we would be happy to put you in touch! 

You can also read our press release for more information.

Lead by our own Florian Schmitz, we went back to Thessaloniki for our kick-off workshop on Cross Community Journalism. In cooperation with From the Sea to the City, the University of Thessaloniki and the local online news portal VORIA, through this project we want to impact the way that local media along the Balkan Route report on migration and migrated communities.

Two local journalists, Kostas Kechagias, a Greek who was born and raised in Thessaloniki, and Mikhael Awad from Lebanon now also residing in Greece's second largest city, will report on issues that concern both locals as well as the migrated community. The two will exchange community-specific knowledge and include perspectives that are not often given space in traditional reporting. The two journalists will receive stipends and will work together for three months, producing original reporting.

Stay tuned for updates as we scale up this project and get in touch with us if you would like to collaborate!

This week, we also share a special interview with our 2024 Fellow and Palestinian digital rights activist Mona Shtaya, who reflect on her life and work under the high-tech Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

The wall in Bethlehem, West Bank at sunset, with shadow of surveillance tower. Photo Credit: Florian Schmitz

• READ: Social media monitoring is growing under the Trump Administration, including predictions about our future behaviour. Who will most be impacted? Communities historically marginalized, including people-on-the-move and the migration justice sector as a whole. Trump’s Social Media Surveillance: Social Scoring by Another Name, Petra Molnar for Tech Policy Press

• WATCH: Private firms like Geo Group are making massive profits off people’s suffering and building up private detention facilities and surveillance capabilities. For-Profit Immigration Surveillance Expands Under Trump, MSNBC: https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/for-profit-immigration-surveillance-expands-under-trump-237945925513
  

• LISTEN: How do people come together in difficult times? Don’t miss this beautiful conversation with writer Sarah Towle and current sanctuary providers Reverends Babs Miller and Jim Rigby, of Austin, Texas and Revered John Fife and Dora Rodriguez: https://sarahtowle.substack.com/p/were-not-the-statue-of-liberty-country

Image Credit: ACLU Southern California

Please follow the MTM on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky, too!

The Migration and Technology Monitor
Incubated at the Refugee Law Lab, York University

*Note about language: Wherever possible, at the Migration and Technology Monitor, we use the term "people-on-the-move" or “people crossing borders” to expand the terminology commonly used when we discuss human migration and how migration management technologies are experienced. This deliberate use of more inclusive terminology does not seek to undermine the fact that refugees face particular vulnerabilities and often experience higher risks and harms as a result of migration management technologies. It simply highlights that at the end of the day there are people at the center of it all. Moreover, all of us may in one way or another be affected by migration management technologies as we cross borders and move across the world. While its greatest impact is on traditionally marginalized communities such as refugees and asylum seekers, the ecosystem of migration management technologies affects us all.