From Datafication to Integration: Rethinking Accountability in Settlement Service Work

Immigration and settlement policies, much like organizational policies or digital technology policies, are built from the coming together of discourses, tools, and people—people standing behind service desks, using databases and making decisions. These interdependent systems, beliefs, and tools effect how decisions are shaped as well as the data cultures of an organization (or a whole sector). Digital technologies and commitments to evidence-based, accountable service delivery are critical to the capacity of the settlement organizations to manage data flow. What does accountability mean in settlement service work? What practices and systems underpin the settlement workers’ approach to accountability efforts? What implications do these practices and systems have for the settlement service work? This presentation addresses these questions through a multi-sited study with the settlement organizations that serve refugees and immigrants in Canada, a country often recognized as a global leader in immigration and settlement policies.

You can read more about Cansu and her research here