PhD Studentship: Artificial Intelligence, Welfare and Migration Governance

About the Project

We are inviting applications for a fully funded PhD position linked to an ERC Starting Grant project, Digital Welfare Borders: The Effects of Artificial Intelligence in Migrants’ Access to Welfare (DIGIWEB). The project examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping welfare provision and migration governance across Europe, with a particular focus on how welfare systems increasingly function as sites of internal bordering.

This PhD studentship will focus on the UK case study within the wider ERC project. The successful candidate will conduct in-depth qualitative research on how AI-driven welfare systems are implemented and experienced at the local level, with a particular emphasis on street-level bureaucrats (social workers etc.), local government, and their interactions with migrant and non-national groups.

PhD Focus and Research Questions

The PhD will explore how AI and digital data systems are changing everyday welfare practices in the UK. The student will likely focus on one or more local authorities and may be embedded within a local government setting to conduct an institutional ethnography of welfare decision-making.

Indicative research questions include:

How do street-level bureaucrats (social workers, welfare officers, housing officers) understand and use AI-driven systems in their daily work?

How are welfare decisions involving migrants and people with precarious legal status shaped by algorithmic risk profiling and linked databases?

How does AI reconfigure professional discretion, accountability and notions of fairness in local welfare governance?

How do migrants and non-national groups experience and respond to these digital welfare systems?

The precise focus of the PhD will be developed collaboratively with the successful candidate.

Methods and Training

The PhD will primarily use qualitative methods, including:

• Institutional ethnography
• Participant observation within local government or welfare offices
• Interviews with street-level bureaucrats, migrants, and relevant NGOs
• Policy and document analysis

The student will be based at Queen Mary University of London and will be embedded in a highly interdisciplinary ERC research team, benefiting from training and collaboration across sociology, anthropology, migration studies and science and technology studies (STS). There will also be opportunities to engage with comparative insights from the Netherlands and Sweden.

Funding and Support

Home tuition fees

Annual maintenance stipend at QMUL rate

Access to additional research, training and dissemination funds through the ERC project

Overseas candidates may apply, however please note that tuition fees are covered at Home rate and we would advised against candidates covering the difference themselves.

Candidate Profile

We welcome applications from candidates with a strong academic background in sociology, social policy, anthropology, political science, migration studies, human geography, STS or a related discipline.

Essential criteria:

A Master’s degree (or near completion) in a relevant social science discipline

Demonstrated interest in welfare governance, migration, AI/digital technologies, or street-level bureaucracy

Strong qualitative research skills or a clear commitment to developing them

Ability to undertake independent fieldwork in the UK

Desirable criteria:

Experience with ethnographic or institutional research

Familiarity with local government, welfare systems, or migration policy

Experience working with marginalised or migrant communities

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