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.