Integrated Migration Management, ICTs' enhanced Responses and Policy Making: Towards Human Centric Migration Management Systems

Dear Colleagues,

The twin migration and refugee crises that challenged several European countries and the European Union (EU) as a whole over the period 2015–2016 revealed that developed world cities and urban areas are largely unprepared to address the variety of challenges that irregular migratory flows generate. In this Special Issue, we query the premises of the smart and resilient cities debates, respectively, to highlight that migration-related challenges and opportunities have not been explicitly addressed in those debates, thus creating a considerable disconnect between what these debates promise and what cities/urban systems increasingly need to deal with on a daily basis. The purpose of this Special Issue is to outline the relevance of bridging the disjuncture, and by incorporating the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the analysis to propose a dynamic analytical framework, a model, apt to employ the key arguments and policy-recommendations of both debates, as well as the promise of ICT for the sake of, on the one hand, alleviating the pressures cities/urban systems face, and on the other hand, serving both the receiving and the incoming populations. The dynamics of that convergence is defined by two hierarchically interconnected levers/gears, i.e., that of ICT, as well as policy-design and policy-making. Accordingly, while this Special Issue makes a case for an ICT-enabled integrated framework for resilient urban systems, it also makes argues for an ethically sensitive, human centred use of smart technologies beyond the high-tech hype (Visvizi, et al., 2017).

The objective of this Special Issue is to disseminate latest, high quality, interdisciplinary research in the domain of Migration Management and Information Technology and to introduce also the concept of Social Inclusive Migration Integration as a key response to the wellbeing and prosperity of modern societies through the adoption of integrative strategies for human development and economic growth with the use of sophisticated technologies and advanced models of human development.

This Special Issue seeks to uncover and present the latest developments in meeting the needs a modern Migration Management and Smart Regions Vision towards sustainable development, prosperity and happiness for humanity.

For this Special Issue, we welcome papers dealing with case studies, literature review, survey findings, analytical methods, and tools. Examples of topics of interests include:

• Conceptual issues and their regulatory- and policy-making implications
• Migration in context of the public goods debate
• Migration and immigration policy in context of the refugee- and migration-crises in Europe
• Migration and refugee crises in Europe of 2014+ – determinants and consequences
• Integration of immigrants and integration policy in European countries
• Local and regional dimensions of mixed migration
• Smart cities and urban areas and mixed migration
• Boarder management policies and tools vis-à-vis mixed migration
• Legal issues and their implications
• Mixed migration in international context: regional, national and local dimensions
• Refugee, asylum, relocation and resettlement – European experience yesterday and today
• Politics and policy-making of mixed migration
• Big Data approaches to Open Migration Linked Data
• Indexing of Migration Data
• Migration Analytics and Key Performance Indicators for Migration Management
• Social Network solutions for Migration Management
• Privacy and Trust in Migration Management Information Systems
• Cloud Computing Applications for Migration Management
• Advanced Sensor Technologies and Mobile Networks for Migration Emergency Systems
• Technology Driven Policy Making for Migration Management
• Social Business Systems and Migration Management
• Sentiment Analysis for Migration
• Funded Research Projects show cases

Reference

Visvizi, A.; Mazzucelli, C.; Lytras, M. Irregular migratory flows: Towards an ICTs’ enabled integrated framework for resilient urban systems. J. Sci. Technol. Policy Manag. 2017, 8, 227–242. Available online: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/JSTPM-05-2017-0020.

Prof. Anna Visvizi
Prof. Marta Pachocka
Prof. Miltiadis D. Lytras
Guest Editors

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