Apps, mobilities, and migration in the Covid-19 pandemic: Covid technology and the control of migrant workers in Singapore

Abstract

In this article we discuss the entanglement of apps, mobilities, and migration – and the way that apps work as migrant infrastructure in a Covid context. We develop our analysis through a case study of Singapore's response to the pandemic during 2020–22, centred on the control of migrant workers through the use of Covid apps. We argue that Covid apps enact ‘managed inequality’ in blatant as well as subtle ways for migrants and the societies in which they live and belong.

QR codes and automated decision-making in the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Along with the highly visible and ubiquitous Safe Entry app, QR codes were also the linchpin of the apps directed at migrant workers—controlling their permissions (and virus and vaccine status) for leaving dormitories for personal visits, and gatekeeping their right to leave their dormitory for work and to enter their workplace (see Gan and Koh, 2021; Goggin and Zhuang, 2022; Ye, 2021).…”