Dear colleagues, I am delighted to share the news that we have opened three postdoc research positions within the framework of the ERC Starting Grant project DIGIWEB - The effects of artificial intelligence on migrants' access to welfare. Two posts are for ethnographers / social scientists (one conducting fieldwork in the Netherlands and the other in Sweden). One post is for a data scientist / critical STS researcher. DIGIWEB is a 5-year interdisciplinary project examining how artificial intelligence (specifically predictive analytics) is transforming the relationship between welfare systems and migration governance. As governments increasingly use AI to make decisions about welfare eligibility and fraud detection, these technologies are reshaping how migrants access social rights and services and may create new forms of 'digital borders' within welfare states. The project combines data science and social science approaches to investigate how welfare algorithms function, how they are implemented by street-level bureaucrats such as social workers, and how they impact migrants' experiences of welfare systems. The research involves comparative work across the UK, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The posts will be based in the research team of Prof Rachel Humphris (PI) within the School for Society and Environment at Queen Mary University of London. The data scientist will have a joint appointment with the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering with Dr Dimitrios Kollias. Full job descriptions and application instructions can be found here: Postdoc 1 (fieldwork in the Netherlands) Deadline: 6/4 https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQR499/postdoctoral-research-associate Postdoc 2: (fieldwork in Sweden) Deadline: 30/4 https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQV774/postdoctoral-research-associate Postdoc 3: (data scientist) Deadline: 20/4 https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQV765/postdoctoral-research-associate I would be grateful if you could help disseminate this announcement within your networks and among potential candidates. I am open to flexible working arrangements and can discuss part-time or full-time work around caring or other commitments. The starting date is flexible but can begin no earlier than October 2026 and no later than January 2027. For any questions regarding the positions or the project, please feel free to get in touch: r.humphris@qmul.ac.uk<mailto:r.humphris@qmul.ac.uk> With warm regards, Rachel Humphris Professor Rachel Humphris (she/her) Department of Politics and International Relations Director, Centre for the Study of Migration Queen Mary University of London New Book: Making Sanctuary Cities: Migration, Citizenship and Urban Governance<https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=36909> Stanford University Press. Discount of 20% with order code FSS25<https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/9781503642393/making-sanctuary-cities/>. New Special Issue: Digital technologies and migration: behind, beyond and around the black box.<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2025.2513153#abstract> New Article: Digital internal bordering: surveillance, data-sharing, and the fate of sanctuary cities<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2025.2513166#abstract>. New Project: Digital Welfare Borders (DigiWeB): The effects of Artificial Intelligence in Migrants' Access to Welfare ERC Starting Grant (2026 - 2031)