Why the Systems that process Immigration need Design Thinking

Immigration is one of the oldest forms of human resettlement, yet we rely on antiquated immigration systems that fail its users and spread misunderstanding.

This is an opinion piece on the research and work I have been doing in digital product design for immigration, with a personal connection.

During 2015 and 2016, more than 2.5 million people applied for asylum in the EU. By the end of 2016, authorities in the member states issued 593,000 first instance asylum decisions. In 2012, Australia created a temporary off-shore detention center to stop asylum seekers’ arrival by sea. In current Trump’s America, the United States keeps setting a variety of records, from capping the maximum allowance of asylum seekers at 30,000 per year (in comparison to its total admission of 84,989 in 2016) to making it harder for non-citizen military members to gain US citizenship after serving.

Some General Information on Immigration

Major world economies speak of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants as statistics — we become identifiable by an application number that bears no name, stories, experiences, or human connection. I say “we” because I carry a post-it note in my purse with my alien number written on it.

When we look at immigration numbers systemically around the globe, it is easy to connect the dots between migrants flows and significant world events:

• Conflicts: 75% of asylum seekers arriving in Europe have been fleeing conflict and persecution in Syria (378,000), Afghanistan (193,000), and Iraq (127,000).
• Climate Change: disaster-related displacements led the UN to rule that climate refugees deserve the protection they cannot be guaranteed in areas affected by climate change.
• Violence: people in Guatemala (16% of the population), Honduras (23%) and El Salvador (20%) live with moderate to severe food security, hindered by social and political instability.

While statistics are essential, they hardly tell the intimate stories of the migrants who face immigration systems — or the story of their immigration process.

If you have the opportunity to call an immigrant friend or colleague, I invite you to spend some time with them and ask them if they feel comfortable to share their immigration story. This is an excellent time to practice empathy and get clarity on whatever immigration misinformation your great-great-uncle uttered during Chrismas dinner.

(Left) I took this photo from the car on my way to Chicago O’Hare in October 2016. My husband would stay in the US, while I headed back to Europe to wait for a decision on my immigration application. I received my temporary green card in June 2018 (Right).

My Experience with Immigration Systems

While I have personally taken part in the United States immigration system, I lived in Stockholm (Sweden) for six years during the so-called “European Refugee Crisis”. In 2015, Sweden received 162,877 asylum requests, a 300% increase since 2013. Of this number, 35,369 applications were filed by unaccompanied minors. The growing numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Europe sparked a debate about whether if and how European countries should sustain this influx of people. Combine now the numbers of incoming asylum and immigration application requests with the political and national shifts in resources to manage them, major immigration systems across Europe, North America, and Australia have seen unprecedented growth in the processing and handling times of immigration files.

It has taken me time to come to terms with the anxiety and stress that an antiquated and callous immigration system, such as that of the United States under the current administration, has magnified. Yet, I am aware that I can tell my immigration story because I was able to access its process and gain a temporary stay. In a couple of months, I have the opportunity to apply for permanent residency.

My initial immigration application took just shy of 23 months to be processed, and the one I am about to start is estimated between 19 to 37 months, according to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). USCIS is the federal agency primarily in charge of legal immigration to the United States.

This is the story of our current immigration systems: perpetually debating the if and how rather than looking for solutions to the systemic problem they face:

• Handling time for registering and deciding upon asylum applications in most European countries is 12–21 months and far exceeds the 6-month limit established by the UN.
• Asylum seekers in Sweden face an average waiting time of 471 days, varying by citizenship. The top three asylum-seeking nationalities in Sweden are Syrian, Afghan, and Iraqi.
• There are 1,089,696 pending immigration cases in the United States, with an average 704 days of waiting time for an immigration hearing.
• Only 28% of asylum request cases were approved in the US in 2016, the most recent data available for comparison.

The scenarios are all too similar, and the statistics grow inhumanely parallel across immigration systems.

Photos by Nitish Meena (left) and Chris Boese (right) on Unsplash

Why Design Thinking could change Immigration Processing

When looking at the current state of digital design in governmental operations, we are seeing some efforts to adopt service-oriented and human-centered approaches to delivering services. Examples include providing somewhat accessible and user-friendly digital access for everyday user needs, from vehicle registration renewal to foster care applications.

When looking at immigration services, we instead see ways to deter it. Immigration systems worldwide still rely heavily on paperwork, failing to adopt the minimum requirements of service and product design, systems practice, design thinking, and user experience. USCIS is the busiest processing organization for immigration worldwide. However, of the roughly 100 forms available for processing, only 11 are available for online filing.

If you’re not familiar with the bureaucracy of immigration filing, it typically starts when you, as the applicant, have figured out the “right immigration path” based on your unique situation. Then, you:

1. Find the form(s) on the USCIS website.
2. Fill, date, and sign all form(s).
3. Attach additional documentation, as instructed in each form filing guide, including other forms for correspondence (this is how USCIS knows where to mail you as an applicant).
4. Submit the filing fee(s) form of payment.
5. Mail.
6. Wait.

I want to highlight waiting. You might know what waiting with your whole essence feels like when applying for your dream job, waiting for a pregnancy test to show its results, swiping right on a dating app after you’ve matched that forever-crush, or fill in the blank that you relate to. Waiting with my whole essence for my immigration case to be processed meant one less day away from my husband with a 6-hours time zone difference, one less missed opportunity to pursue my dream career, one less day of pointless attempts to learn about my case status with indifferent immigration agents.

Immigration systems worldwide work similarly: they provide a service in exchange for a fee. They are businesses that monitor performance to “effectively, efficiently and economically” deliver services to the public. In the United States, USCIS is funded almost entirely through application and petition fees, not taxpayer dollars. Yet, as a business, it relies on antiquated operations and inefficient practices. Immigration systems must become digital, agile, and reliable if they want to meet users’ basic needs and be competitive businesses in service of modern-day human flows.

How Moving towards Digital Platforms can make Immigration Systems effective Services

It’s easier said than done to state, “hire some agile managers and scrum masters” to review the way applications (tasks) and requests for further evidence (tickets) come in and should be processed. However, the required changes for immigration systems to update are systemic and will mean:

• redefining a paper process into digital, requiring thousands of employees to be trained in new software;
• building a robust and secure database to contain sensitive users’ data, including information that might make asylum seekers and refugees victims of international repercussions;
• creating a digital product that effectively eliminates existing users’ challenges, from submitting applications and paying fees to monitoring case status and applying for interview dates.

As a product UX designer with 23 months of waiting time for my immigration case to be processed, I came up with some useful solutions to solve my own user story.

This is an overview of the app we designed to meet existing immigration process user stories. These screens were produced in collaboration with Dima Strakovsky and the University of Kentucky School of Art and Visual Studies.

The Welcome Card

If you are interested in the work we have been doing through The Welcome Card project here are some links:

• Apps for Refugees | The Atlantic
• What Design Can Do For Refugees
• World Economic Forum
• Designing A Winning Solution To Support Refugees | +Acumen
• Welcome Home To
• Refugee Challenge Winners | Dezeen

See more @ thewelcomecard.org