Mobile Phone Data Transforming Casework in Asylum Decision-making: Insights from the Danish Case

The Danish Immigration Service estimates that approximately 20% of decisions in asylum cases are informed by data extracted from asylum seekers’ mobile phones, enabling more comprehensive constructions of data than passport or similar identification documents provide. Such data (e.g., from social media) feed into caseworker systems and inform decisions on whether to grant asylum to an applicant or not. During the asylum process both governmental authorities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have a formal role assisting individuals applying for asylum in understanding, intervening in, and participating in the socio-technical infrastructures through which data are produced and used, defined as data infrastructure literacy. In this article we ask: In the context of mobile phone data transforming asylum casework in Denmark, what characterizes data infrastructure literacy for different stakeholders in the asylum process, including those subjected to the asylum procedure? The research presented in this article is informed by qualitative data produced through semi-structured interviews ( N = 10), summaries of asylum cases from both a public and a non-public dataset, and 160 hours of observational studies. Our findings suggest that data obtained from mobile phones have become an integral part of asylum decision-making. Furthermore, our findings suggest that data infrastructure literacy is conditioned by stakeholders’ understanding of mobile phone data as assembled and utilized in the following ways: (1) through distributed, collaborative, and data-driven efforts, (2) at every stage of the asylum procedure and beyond, (3) as back-up data for credibility assessment, (4) in unequal power dynamics of consent, and (5) by practices that continue to transform by use of new types of data. This is crucial for ensuring that individuals seeking asylum receive basic legal support during and after the implementation of new data infrastructures.