How Could AI and Big Data Help the Migration Process?

Moving from one country to another is something that millions of people do every year, but have you ever stopped to wonder whether AI and big data could make it easier?

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To Make the Paperwork Easier

You might not even have realized how many times technology has helped you recently. From AI chatbots when you need some help online to the big data that's used to help you make the right investing decisions, this is something that's entered so many parts of our lives that it would be strange if migration wasn't covered.

The migration process is something that we've traditionally thought of as being heavily focused on paperwork. For example, this immigration solicitors Ireland site shows us how there are different types of visas or permission available, with processes that can end up being quite complicated and time-consuming to complete. They suggest that the time needed differs from one case to another, so it's best to refer to experts in the field.

Yet, we could simply sort our paperwork to move abroad using AI. This could be a program that works alongside the existing processes by guiding us through each step, or it could be some sort of border control where our papers are scanned and the correct approval granted before we even set foot in the country.

Source: Pixabay

To Predict Movement Patterns

One of the most interesting uses for big data is to predict patterns of migration. This is something that's already been looked at across the EU, as almost half of the European governments surveyed said that they are attempting to predict how many immigrants will reach their shores in the next few years.

In the US, the use of big data has been aimed so far at the idea of screening newly arrived visitors to see if they should be allowed to enter the country. American border control could become largely automated if this was fully introduced, which would speed up the process of scanning migrants but also raise the possibility of some form of discrimination being introduced unwittingly.

This last point reveals one of the biggest dangers of this sort of technology. By taking out the human touch from such a sensitive subject, we risk making the migration unfair to some people. But if you fully trust the data and the AI behind any new system, you'll expect it to get the balance just right, eventually.
There's still a lot to be worked out. For instance, the American model was to be based on assessing how likely a newly arrived migrant is to contribute positively or negatively to society. At first sight, this seems like an impossible task to expect computers to calculate and decide upon, but feeding in the right data and asking the right question could provide the expected results. It's all about the quality of the data and the system.

It certainly wouldn't be a surprise if we were to see AI and big data gradually introduced to the migration process, but governments need to be careful that it's seen to be done fairly in order for people to get behind it.