In this episode of the Harvard Data Science Review podcast, we dive into the data on refugees and immigration.

Each episode of the Harvard Data Science Review (HDSR) podcast functions as a case study into how data is used to lead, mislead, manipulate, and inform the important decisions facing us today.

In the episode that follows, we dive into the data on refugees and immigration. American public opinion seems very divided on these issues, but is it really? Is the U.S. more or less welcoming to refugees and immigrants than other parts of the world? What is the role of the media in influencing opinions on immigration? Will the U.S. Southern Border, Ukraine, and other potential refugee crises affect the upcoming political elections in the U.S.? We bring in two experts to help discuss: Katharine Donato and Scott Tranter.

Katharine Donato holds the Donald G. Herzberg Chair in International Migration at Georgetown University and is director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Donato is also a co-author of the HDSR article Misinformation About COVID-19 and Venezuelan Migration: Trends in Twitter Conversation During a Pandemic.

Scott Tranter is the senior vice president of data science and engineering at Dynata and co-founder of ptimus Analytics, which was acquired by Dynata in 2021. He is also an investor in Decision Desk HQ, which provides election results data to news outlets, political campaigns, and businesses.

A stream and lightly edited transcript of the podcast, which was recorded in June 2022, can be found below. You can learn more about the Harvard Data Science Review, an open access journal published by the MIT Press, here, or listen to other episodes of the HDSR podcast here.

Liberty Vittert: Hello, and welcome to the Harvard Data Science Review podcast. Im Liberty Vittert, feature editor. And I, along with my co-host and editor-in-chief Xiao-Li Meng, are diving into a highly controversial topic today: refugees and immigration. American public opinion seems very divided on these issues, but is it really? Is America more or less welcoming to refugees and immigrants than other parts of the world? And how will the Southern border, Ukraine name a crisis affect the upcoming American political elections?

We bring in two experts to discuss. Scott Tranter currently leads data science and engineering efforts at Dynata. Hes also the co-founder of Optimist Analytics, which was acquired by Dynata in 2021, and is an investor in Decision Desk HQ, which provides election results data to news outlets, political campaigns, and businesses. We also have with us professor Katharine Donato, who holds the Donald G. Herzberg chair in international migration at Georgetown University, and is the director of the Institute for the study of International Migration in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Xiao-Li Meng: Katherine and Scott, thank you so much for joining us. Since this is a data science podcast, the first question is about data. What are the current reliable opinion polls available out there about the general American public sentiment toward refugees and migrants, and how do we know these opinion polls are reliable?

Scott Tranter: Let me break that down into two questions: What are good ones, and how do we know theyre reliable? I still think Pew is probably the best resource for what I would call unbiased research on the American public opinion. They do a very good international public opinion as well on immigration issues and things like that. One of the reasons is that its very longitudinal. They have some questions on immigration going back 30, 40, 50 years now, probably even longer than that. And theyre very good and well-funded. They dont miss quarters. They dont miss reportings. And so we can look back at the 90s, of what people thought about cross-border immigration between U.S. and Mexico, and see how its evolved over the last 20 years as debate. How do we know its reliable? Thats the ever-pressing question with polling: Is it reliable?

And I think, Xiao-Li you and I have talked many times. Its statistics. Were getting close, but were probably wrong somewhere. And the key is to know where were wrong. Thats a long way of me saying I think Pew does a good job because theyre consistent. They may be wrong, but theyre looking at attitudinal shifts and if theyre off by five, theyve been off by five for 30 years and they get us right directionally, which I think is the important part when people look at polls. Dont look at the numbers and look for precision, look at the numbers and look for trends. And I think thats what everyone should take away from stuff like that.

Xiao-Li Meng: And this is a question for both of you. You both talk about this, the importance of thinking about things over time. As we know, the public tends to pay particular attention to issues like refugee migrants during times of crisis. Whether its Syria, Venezuela, now its Ukraine. How have things changed over time?

Scott Tranter: I think when we look at some of the polling in and around some of these countries before they become in the news you mentioned Syria, you mentioned Ukraine. The southern border, while it is persistent in U.S. politics, has times of spiking and not spiking. Its largely changed when we look at the U.S.-based stuff, its largely revolved around political party lines. And the messaging has roughly been the same over the last 10 or 15 years. Its not necessarily about the specific reason it popped up. During the 2020 election, it was around some of these migrant caravans coming from South America up through Mexico, across the border. It really wasnt about that specific caravan, while thats what the news covered. That was symbolic of the larger immigration issue as a whole. Whereas we see internationally when its about Syria, or Ukraine, its usually not about that specific instance.

Its about, what do we think about foreign aid? All of a sudden the public remembers that we spend billions of dollars on foreign aid. Its not hundreds of millions of dollars, things like that. Thats been primarily how the public has been viewing it over the last 10 or 15 years, mostly because of how they are consuming their news and where they get their news from. I think whats interesting or what Ive noticed has changed is there isnt a whole lot of movement, and Id be curious to see what Katharine thinks on this in general feelings about, should we support refugees overseas or by and large, should we support change to our immigration policy in the U.S.? The opinion lines have been pretty solidified, which is interesting because we do know from public opinion research and sociology and political science that you can change peoples opinions.

These things happen quite a bit. And I think theres an opportunity here for people who want to push their side to change up the messaging a little bit to get what they want, because we do see that in small-scale tests, whether it be message testing, ad testing, or focus groups. Theres quite a bit of consistency. Theres not a whole lot of change over the last 10 or 12 years in the messaging or what weve noticed in opinion, but it doesnt mean it cant change in the future.

Katharine Donato: I do think you bring up an important point, which is that as we think about countries to the south of our border at this point, really not Mexico, as much as northern, central America. The story thats told in the U.S. is very politicized. And actually, that goes back 30 years. Thirty years of one party viewing the border and viewing the issue in one way versus another. But that view is very different than whats believed with respect to Ukraine, with respect to Syria, with respect to Afghanistan. And because that story of refugees who come from those places come from a situation of international import, international aid and international relationships. The entire country was following the Afghan evacuation in August. I think primarily because we had been we as a country and so many Americans had made relationships and understood the real life experience in Afghanistan and understood people and said, We really have to do something. We have spent decades in this country and we really need to get these people out.

We, in theory, could have that same opinion about Honduras, but we dont, and thats partly because the politics and the messaging around the countries south of the border has never been the same kind of messaging that recently weve seen with Afghanistan and Ukraine. And you could argue that kind of messaging doesnt exist for smaller scale movements of people who are forced to move.

Think about the Rohingya in Bangladesh. That was certainly forced movement, but it wasnt about international relationships between the United States and other countries. It wasnt about international aid. And there still are over 700,000 people from Myanmar living in Bangladesh with I dont know what kind of future there and more and more kids being born stateless because Bangladesh isnt giving them birth certificates. These sorts of situations when theyre not part of foreign aid and foreign assistance really just sit and fuel other issues that are problematic over time.

Liberty Vittert: I do have a question about these movements of people. Something like the Afghanistan crisis. It was a very easy thing for someone to wrap their head around. These people helped us. The Talibans now coming to kill them. If we dont get them out, theyre going to be killed. Thats a very easy thing for me to understand. Whereas with something like the southern border, when I was recently there, I met people who had been forced out of Honduras because the government was trying to kill them, but I also met a family who was coming up because the father simply couldnt find a job, but it wasnt like the government was coming to try to kill him. I can understand how theres confusion between those two types of people specifically for Americans. Is there real data on how many people are coming from our southern border that are what you would normally think of as a refugee, like the Afghanistan crisis versus people who are coming for other valid reasons, but not necessarily for refugee status?

Katharine Donato: Let me say this: Reasons and motives are messy. Every time I go to either border the U.S. southern border, the Mexican southern border, doesnt matter people tell you all kinds of things. Let me step back by saying, in response, that you can wrap your head around the idea and most Americans did that. We worked with these people for 20 years in Afghanistan. And so many of them now, as the Taliban takes over, are going to be at risk and we owe it to them and our country to move these people out and give them a place for them to raise their children in a peaceful way. But migration from northern central American countries started growing in the late 80s. It took off in the 1990s. There was essentially no migration from northern central America before the mid-1980s.

And then 20 years later, were wondering why there are so many children at the border. Those kids are trying to reunite with their parents who are in the U.S.

What I dont understand is why we cant wrap our heads around the fact that we, the United States, has been relying on the labor of immigrants from northern central America and from Mexico for decades. And then were surprised that when the kids get to be 13, 14, 15, they want to live with their parents?

Back in 2014, I was saying this. Why arent we helping evacuate those kids to go to the U.S. in a legal, safe way versus what has happened?

Which is they hire smugglers and come up to the border. To me, thats a very simple thing that people could get their heads around, but theres a lot of resistance to recognizing how much we in the U.S., our lives are subsidized by the lives of immigrant laborers. We do as a nation and as an economy rely on immigrant labor and yet we cant wrap our arms around the fact that there could be kids and grandkids who want to reunify after years of living without their parents. These kids want to reunify with them here.

Liberty Vittert: Its funny, I wrote an article using a lot of data about how we need to increase immigration or risk economic disaster for the United States, but Im totally with you. And it makes so much sense. I cant help but wonder though, is there a difference in the way Americans feel versus Europeans? Scott, is there any data on this: Are Europeans more willing to accept immigrants or is the U.S. more willing to accept immigrants? I think with news messaging, I always imagine that Americas the most closed off, but maybe its not. Do we have any feelings about this or knowledge about this?

Scott Tranter: Its funny you bring that up, because I always talk about it. Let me bring up one extreme example. You look at the country of India and how much immigration they allow. Naturalized immigration. I think its in the low four digits. A country with over

Liberty Vittert: What? You mean like 1,000 people?

Scott Tranter: Yes. Naturalized. They allow guest workers and things like that, but theyre just like, No, were not going to naturalize someone from Canada who wants to move to India. And I think we see that a lot. Im using an extreme example there, but lets take a look at the Syria refugee crisis. And a lot of those folks were moving through Eastern and Western Europe. And you would see in places like France, especially the suburbs of Paris, lots of riots, lots of opinions and lots of, to be honest, racism against Syrian immigrants as they came through. You see this in Germany, you see this in Hungary. You see this in Poland. You saw this in Ukraine, too. Immigration is a huge issue in Europe and its highly polarizing. And I would argue in some instances more polarizing than it is in the U.S. because I think they have a little bit more in-your-face protests about it and things like that.

But the U.S. is by no means the worst and by no means the best if your measurement in worst and best is acceptance of immigrants. Its a big issue everywhere. Whats interesting is the rhetoric and some of the opinion and messaging around it. In the U.S. in the early 2000s, the messaging was always, we dont need immigration because wed like the Americans in the job. Over the last five or six years with unemployment sitting somewhere between 3 and 5 percent, which is historically low, thats a harder message to do. But in places like France, where you will see unemployment, especially in regions, at 10 to 15 percent, thats still a pretty potent argument. And its one of those things I think internationally is an issue. Enlightened might be the wrong word, but I dont necessarily think our European friends are looking at immigration any better or worse than we are. Theyre looking at it with similar problems and on similar scale.

Katharine Donato: I totally agree that its not the worst here. We do have a system to naturalize and you can set yourself up to naturalize after getting permanent residency. It takes time. Its an investment, but it can be done. And in many parts of the world, no one can be naturalized, or as Scott said, very, very few people can be naturalized. Theres a long history of many European countries not allowing citizens to be foreign nationals. But even during periods of tight restrictions, there are still foreign nationals who are permitted to live in the U.S. permanently and to be naturalized. I talk about all the problems in the U.S. system and at the same time recognize that we are in one of the nations that along the lines of citizenship and some other factors has a pretty good track record. Id love to hear Scott talk about the border for people who dont know much about the border and many people in the U.S. and if we just think about the southern border, many people in the U.S. and in Mexico really know very little about the border.

The border is a really unique, specific place, physically, and economically with respect to the movement of people. And yet when it comes to the politics around the border and the political opinion around the border, in the minds of many, they equate the border to migration. When in fact the border is so much more than that. I think if we were able we, the big broader U.S. if we were able to see the border as more than migration, we actually could do some really good things that would strengthen that regional border place, which for me is typically 20 to 40 miles from the border north and south. And we could strengthen it in so many ways that would make it a better place for everyone there.

Scott Tranter: I know were on the data podcast, so I will bring in a qualitative focus group I was in. It was interesting. Were in Minnesota and youre asking people about what the border meant to them. So Minnesota, right, they have the Canadian border, but theyre pretty far away from the southern border. And they had some pretty strong opinions about how the border affected their day-to-day life. Think about that. They think the U.S. southern border affects their day-to-day life and they might make an argument They might say, We need a strong southern border because I want trucks to pass through freely so I get goods better. They might make an economic argument, or et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But no, they were making a safety and fairness argument.

And the safety and fairness argument was first, theyre like, An unprotected border lets in a lot of people we may or may not like, whether they be criminals or terrorists or whatever it is. So theres an aspect there. And a fairness is, its not that we dont like them, its just why do they get to cut the line? And for them, the border is symbolic of those two things. And if we sat in focus groups, and Im sure there have been some poll questions constructed, although theyd probably be pretty poorly constructed poll questions that ask at that Generally speaking, I would say if youre asking it within 30 or 40 miles of the border, youll probably get a better answer. But if youre asking it anywhere in America, the border pretty much is equated with fairness and safety and things like that, whether thats true or not.

And I think that is just the easy answer for folks. And thats what has been drilled in for the last 15 or 20 years with 30-second ads and 10-second flashes and 10-minute fiery speeches. And its one of those things I think we need to get off the sound bites and a little bit thats the public. I blame the public for this were just people of convenience, and I dont really want to think about this much longer than the 15 seconds thats in front of me. Thats the answer in all public opinion. If we are doing this on climate change and how to educate people on that, it really boils down to, we have got to stop speaking in 15-second increments. If we ask the border question of some very staunch Republicans who own hundreds of acres on the U.S.-Mexican border, theyre actually fairly pro-immigration as far as it goes in the political spectrum. They vote Republican every single time and they own property on the border and they own guns and all the other things.

But theyre like, Look, unless youre going to put a hundred-foot fence up and then man someone every 10 feet, the wall isnt an answer. We have to have a comprehensive We have to have a way to get it. And oh, by the way, I want some of these workers to work on my farm and they want to work on my farm and then they want to go work somewhere else. And I think, the closer you get to the issue, the more educated people get. Its just because they have to spend more than two minutes on it.

Liberty Vittert: We can say, what is the general American public feeling or we can say, what is the general international feeling towards the refugees or immigrant movements, but how does it break down? If were actually trying If political parties either direction, or if organizations nonprofits are trying to sway American public opinion one way or the other in terms of how they feel about refugees and migrants, who is it that they need to sway? Who feels which way? And what is the kind of messaging that works? What can actually make someone feel better? Scott, I remember USA for UNHCR did some work. And there were things that surprised me that actually swayed people negatively, gave people less affinity for the cause. That surprised me. How do we figure those things out?

Scott Tranter: I think public opinion polling is important, but I think we also need to go upstream with some of the message testing and how we present this information. And let me give you a parallel. When looking at trying to convince people about climate change, what a lot of organizations found was that we dont talk about the scary parts of climate change, we talk about if the sea is going to rise, then your flood insurance is going to get higher. That actually happened to convince a lot of people who are like, I dont know, climate change may be a thing, may not be a thing, but if youre telling me my home insurance is going to go up, my flood insurance is going to go up, Im going to start paying attention to this. If we take that example to immigration, maybe we dont talk about some of the hard It could go either way. Maybe we dont talk about some of the hard economic choices. We talk about the moral choices. And then we see things like the Catholic church specifically in the U.S., theyre considered relatively pro-immigration and thats the angle they go, and they seem to have some efficacy there. Or on the flip side, Ive seen some testing on some ads where people crossing the border, theyre going to be here, whether or not you think they should be here or not. So they should be in the system so they can be contributors and they can not be in the shadows of society. Thats reason and logic. And thats a long way of me saying there are a lot of different ways to do it and different pockets of people respond differently but what we really need to do is take the one step beyond the public opinion and really start message testing this and seeing what different groups it goes against.

Katharine Donato: And I would say the message testing has to be not done at one point in time only because we do live in this very dynamic political landscape at the moment. A dynamic, lets say, just in the last 10 years, if we think about politics. We need to be able to do that message testing, make a commitment to do it over a period of years and different months in a year so that we can really figure out whether or not something is specific to a particular time and place, or whether it truly can make a difference across, lets say, much of one country over a period of a few years.

Xiao-Li Meng: Speaking of informing the public and educating the public, having longer conversations to make sure everybody understands what things really are Theres one thing that has changed over the time and is increasing becoming a concern for all of us and Katharine, thank you for your wonderful article for Harvard Data Science Review about misinformation, that you wrote about how the trigger is misinformation about a set of announcements about entry and exit restriction at the Venezuela and the Columbian border. My general question here is, first, what do we know about the impact of this misinformation? As Scott just said, a 15-second ad can influence peoples thinking and 15 seconds of misinformation can probably do quite a bit of damage. And my second question probably is even a little bit harder: How do we make sure that particularly for the data science community itself, that when we study those issues, that we make sure we dont fall into the trap for example, select or study something that supports our ideology, because that can distort the information?

Katharine Donato: Let me say that the piece that I wrote for the journal, we looked at certain announcements and certain events, and then tried to We used Twitter data to look at the conversation before and after those events and those announcements. And on the one hand, there is a lot of concern and we need to be concerned about misinformation and all the information that is not empirically supported, but on the other hand and one of the events that we focused on was the president of Venezuela when he announced that there is a miracle drops cure to COVID. We were interested in seeing after that day, how much that messaging sustained itself. And for the first few days we saw in terms of frequency a lot of messaging, but the key finding is that messaging drops down to almost zero within the first two weeks of that announcement.

It wasnt successful from Maduros point of view, I assume, or his people, because Im assuming that they had hoped to make this announcement because they wanted other things to happen. And that the announcement itself just has no salience on Twitter by a month afterward. That gives me some hope that some forms of misinformation will not have the saliency that I would worry about. That I would worry about. And you can measure that by in this case, we use Twitter, but you could also look at other forms of organic data that would help you, lets say, from online newspapers and different languages. And you could look at any event or any announcement and try to understand whether or not a conversation about that event or announcement shifts over time. Thats interesting. That is something that before this age of social media, we couldnt do. We did look at the conversation, but we didnt have the same data. We didnt have the same amount of data. We didnt have all of the data analytics we have now.

On the one hand, were moving forward. On the other hand with all of the social media, we have certainly evidence of I dont know if its more or less; I fear that its more misinformation and the ability for computers to create more of that misinformation on their own. Increasingly, in all areas of the social sciences, we move toward using these data more, absolutely. If we have a fabulously important question, we also have to prioritize the misinformation piece. What are we going to do to answer the question, to me now, is only half of the question that ultimately needs to be asked and answered because the other half has to be, how do we know what were seeing is real? And how do we understand the various forms of manipulating the messaging or the conversation that were studying?

Liberty Vittert: Professor, is there a specific example over the past X amount of years of a trend that really surprised you or that you think that people wouldnt know about when it comes to sentiment?

Katharine Donato: I dont know how much people know about it because you cant really tell in this politicized environment were living in. I think a lot of people know this, but they dont own it as knowledge thats important, at least thats my sense. Im not a politician, but the fact that you have 80 percent or so, give or take, of the American public supporting DACA and supporting a way of making DACA become more permanent as a status thats the program that President Obama through executive action started in 2012. It just actually had its 10 year anniversary. DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and I think estimates are about 700,000+ people in the United States have DACA. It is not a legal status. It is a status and its temporary, but it does allow people who came in either with their parents or without their parents, as children, to move their status toward regularizing it so that they can work in the U.S. and they can be above the table versus below.

When you look at public opinion about DACA recipients, you just see very high numbers, a lot of support. And yet its 10 years old and we still have 700,000 or more people without a formal regularized status. And when I talk and I tell people about the support for DACA, sometimes people know. People on both sides of the political spectrum or on all sides will know theres a lot of support for the DACA recipients. And yet at the same time, theres been no change, no ability in Congress to move it forward. Thats just one of several examples I think. Generally, the U.S. public is in support of immigration and yet we hear so much more in the media about, lets say, the problems on the immigration side. I dont know if its just that people dont know some of the findings about public opinion nationwide or they just dont then own it to move some change forward.

Liberty Vittert: Given all of this misinformation, given all these conversations about refugees and migrants, Scott, you are the caller of the elections coming up in 2022 and 2024. How much will these conversations be affecting 22 and 24?

Scott Tranter: Thats always my favorite question, especially when were four months out. What I have been amazed about is the publics ability to not have any attention span. And what I mean by that is whatever were talking about today, if were talking about it in the final four to two weeks, then maybe, but if we know what were going to be talking about in the final two to four weeks in October, we should all go start a political consultancy, because we will all be bajillionaires and pick the winner.

Liberty Vittert: Well go to Vegas and bet on the winner.

Scott Tranter: Vegas or the UK where you can actually bet on this stuff. The answer is that its possible, but politics doesnt drive the news. Politics reacts to the news. And what does the news do? The news is very, what can I get attention on? If you tell me what were going to be talking about in October, Ill tell you what the issues are, but I dont think anyone can do that.

Thats a long way of me saying immigration is always going to be an issue on peoples radar if its polled. It is consistently polled on the top five of issues. Its usually not the number one. Occasionally it gets number one. For instance, in 2008, it was number one in Arizona for the presidential. Why? Because John McCain ran on those types of things, but it is usually top five. And when I say top five, everyone could probably guess its big broad issues like immigration, healthcare, jobs, and economy. Sometimes you separate those out and then theres usually some foreign affairs aspect or something like that. But those generally are what they are. Today, the number one issue, by and large, is inflation, which is a proxy for the economy.

Liberty Vittert: Its the economy, stupid. Isnt that the quote?

Scott Tranter: Its the economy stupid. Yeah, James Carville and Paul Begala used to say that. Its one of those things, and why is that important? Its because gas in California is above seven bucks a gallon. Thats what they care about and thats whats on the news. And I dont know if this will be an issue this fall. I do know that border issues, immigration issues are fundraising issues for both the Democrats and the Republicans. Even though its not maybe talked about in the news, its what a significant amount of Republican candidates use to their position on what they think should do with the border. They will raise millions if not tens of millions of dollars on their position. And so will Democrats, by the way. Democrats will also, off their immigration positioning, raise millions, if not tens of millions of dollars. It is an issue that resonates. Whether its an issue that moves the middle or moves the sway-able voters, thats a different question. And I dont have an answer for that, but it does move money among the opinion hardened left and right.

Xiao-Li Meng: Thank you, Katharine and Scott, for this really both informative and thought-provoking conversation. Unfortunately, we have to wrap up. But we always end with this magical wand question, and todays question is, what data do you want? If you can wave your magical wand, what data do you want about refugees that you dont have?

Katharine Donato: What I really want are detailed movement histories. And when I say detailed I dont just want to know if youve moved because you were forced to move. I want to know when you moved, how long it took you to get to wherever youve gone, whats happened in the place that youve been received and, importantly, if youve moved beyond that first move. We know very, very little about secondary and tertiary movements among forced migrants, whether theyre formally refugees embedded by the UNHCR or not. Remember that less than 1 percent of refugees get resettled. UNHCR vets people, gives people the refugee label following global protocols, and then most refugees remain refugees and cant really leave where they are, but we dont really know that. We just know that only 1 percent get resettled. What happens to everyone else and what happens even after you get resettled?

I would like to see migration history data that are timed that would allow us to understand the first, second, third moves of people. And then we could really tie such data, if theyre tied to time and place. We can then integrate other traditional data sources with them. We could certainly understand climate-induced migration and environmentally induced migration in a much deeper way than we have. We have some survey data that offer those kinds of detailed migration histories, but theyre very specific to place and certain migration circuits around the world. And none of the global multilateral organizations collect such data because theyre in the business of providing relief as well as some other things. Theyre too busy, but I think we could make a really significant move forward if we had such data about people who were forced to move.

Xiao-Li Meng: Thank you. Scott?

Scott Tranter: In my answer, its going to be a little more specific. I would love Specifically in the U.S., economic migration history. What I always wondered is if youre a person who crosses the border, you walked 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 miles in an area I would never walk to a place where youre not sure how youre going to feed or shelter yourself. And then a lot of these people, by and large, are getting jobs and then they are working themselves up to pay for shelter or send their kids to school and things like that.

And I think if we had good economic data on what happens to these immigrants, especially in the U.S., on how they integrate themselves into society, I think thatd be much more enlightening and move us away from the anecdotes of, Theyre just coming here so they can rob a 7/11 or theyre just coming here so that they can walk into an emergency room and glum off healthcare. I think if we had hard data, irrefutable data on what these people did once they came across and not just 30 days after, but years after I think wed do away with the anecdotes and really bring some hard data to it.

Xiao-Li Meng: Wonderful. And both of you, Ill just remind the whole data science community how hard it is in this humanitarian study to collect data. And I really want to thank both of you, but I also want to just again, make a plea to the general data science community through this podcast, that there is so much more can be done, should be done. And the data science community can help. And I think I keep using the words data science here in a broadest sense because lots of things here are really about even how to ask the question, what to measure, and in this geo-space, one of the hardest things about collecting data is that you will have countries, regimes that will actively conceal their data. This is another level of complication that I think really the whole data science community can help to work on. And, again, thanks to both of you for such a thought-provoking conversation, and thank you again for your time.

Liberty Vittert: Thank you both so much.

Here is the original post:

Public Opinions on Immigrants and Refugees: Does the Data Inform or Misinform Us? - The MIT Press Reader

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Ed-tech players provide a perfect platform to upskill Indias graduates and working professionals, promoting a skills-based approach to higher education in the face of new industry-specific skill demands and technological advancements. With industry requirements changing in tandem with economic and social progress, as well as the impact of rapidly progressing technology, a vast number of funds, and other macroeconomic factors have set the stage for Indias next chapter of growth.

Despite the fact that economic circumstances are changing with continuous new technology, there is a need for graduates and working professionals to have access to comprehensive upskilling programs and tools. Its critical for Indias flourishing workforce to acquire new skills to keep up with these tectonic shifts the Indian economys engine is its employable workforce. Recent years have also witnessed a mind shift in hiring, with companies favoring a skill-based to a degree-based approach. Core skills take precedence over degrees under this mode of hiring needs. This paradigm shift eliminates barriers for learners who want to learn, increasing the talent pool in businesses.

Higher education programs that focus on specialization in emerging technologies like Data Science, Cybersecurity, AI & ML, are an ideal approach for graduates and professionals who want upskill or reskill to build successful careers in these fields. It is appropriate for professionals who want to keep up with the shifting present-day business climate while using cutting-edge curricula and teaching methods. In todays world, understanding ed-tech trends like Cybersecurity, Data Science AI (Artificial Intelligence), and ML (Machine Learning) is the need of the hour to help boost productivity, automate procedures, and execute complicated computations. Analytics, cloud computing, full-stack software creation, and Cybersecurity are all in high demand. These skills are in high demand because they provide a competitive advantage.

There is a big push for specialization in these areas and many other upcoming technologies as they have the potential to change how we live and work. Understanding and learning about these technologies are being given importance in higher education so that learners can make informed decisions about their future. Technology has always been a major enabler of economic growth and development. In the past, the focus was on using technology to automate manual processes and improve efficiency. However, there is a new wave of technologies that are focused on Data Science, cybersecurity, AI and Machine Learning (ML). These technologies have the potential to transform various industries and sectors, including education.

The application of Data Science, cybersecurity, AI and ML in the workplace can help organizations improve their decision-making process, automate repetitive tasks and gain insights into customer behavior. However, these technologies can only be utilized to their full potential if the workforce has the necessary skills. Data science is rapidly changing the landscape of higher education. By harnessing the power of data, institutions of higher learning are able to gain insights that were previously unavailable. This is resulting in a paradigm shift in how higher education institutions operate and provide value to their students. In the past, the focus of higher education has been on providing students with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in their chosen field. However, with the advent of data science, institutions are now able to focus on providing value-added services that can help students in their studies and career development.

One of the most significant changes that data science is bringing to higher education is helping institutions to identify and track student progress. By collecting data on student performance, institutions can identify areas where students are struggling and provide targeted interventions that can help them improve. Data science is also changing the way in which educational institutions communicate with their students. In the past, communication was often one-way, with institutions sending out information and expecting students to consume it. However, with Data Science, institutions are now able to interact with their students on a more personal level, providing them with the information they need when they need it. The changes that data science is bringing to higher education are just the beginning. As data becomes more accessible and institutions become more adept at using it, we can expect to see even more transformative changes in the way these institutions operate.

The traditional educational system needs support to meet the requirements and demands of todays students. The workforce is changing and the skills required to be successful are also evolving. To meet the demands of the new economy, higher education must adapt and provide students with the necessary skills to succeed. One of the most important skills that students need to learn is how to protect themselves and their data online. With the rise of the internet and digital technologies, Cybersecurity has become one of the most important issues facing society today. As more and more industries move online, the need for qualified Cybersecurity professionals is only going to continue to grow. Ed-techs are rising to meet this challenge and providing students with the skills they need to succeed in the workforce.

AI & ML is further augmenting access to quality and affordable higher education, creating new avenues for employment and entrepreneurship, and helping students have access to the latest technology and resources so that they can stay ahead in the competitive world. An AI system can function as a personal tutor or teachers aide, delivering the appropriate material to each student while also keeping the teacher informed of their development. The educator can then devote more attention to specific students. In this way, every student can get the best out of their education.

AI & ML helps in creating an environment for peer networking and enhancing learning opportunities this helps in fostering a community of learners who can share their knowledge and experience with each other. In addition, new AI-enabled methods help in assessing student performance rather than their ability to regurgitate information. This further helps in ensuring high-quality education and learning.

Organisations and businesses are also investing in meaningful higher education programs and providing incentives such as tuition reimbursements to employees who upskill in these trending domains.

The growing popularity of skill-based recruiting also implies that professionals must have some understanding of current technological trends and tools to be successful, aside from communication, leadership, creative thinking, risk assessment, and empathy, which are just a few examples of non-technical or soft skills that will help employees succeed. With Indias rise as a global economic giant and technology-driven innovation power, its workforce will need continual upskilling and reskilling in innovative educational technologies and fields to remain competitive with the industrys changing forms. Theres no doubt that the demands for specialized skill-based knowledge are changing. And these changes are driven by the rise of ed-tech trends like data science, cybersecurity, and AI & ML.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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How skill-based ed-tech trends are bringing in a paradigm shift in higher education - Times of India

Julius Sokenu| Your Turn

Editors note: This is the first part of a two-part article on how community colleges partner with families and the community.The second part will run next Sunday.

As Moorpark College begins another academic year, I am reminded that Ventura County community colleges never truly take a summer break from fulfilling the year-round educational needs within our service area.

I am overjoyed our campuses are awash with new activities and new, younger faces over the summer. As president of Moorpark College, I see how our campus continues to play a vital role in the lives of some of our youngest community members with our Childhood Development Center, summer camps at Americas Teaching Zoo, biotech and theatre arts programs and high school technical career workshops.

These enrichment opportunities happen because our community is eager and ready to engage with us as never before. As challenging as COVID-19 has been for all students and educators, cultivating and maintaining partnerships with community members and organizations continue to be some of the most important relationships we have. They point to how our colleges and community are stronger together.

Integral to this community-building is how Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura colleges partner with high schools, community organizations and local industry to increase the number of young students being introduced to college programs. While community colleges consider the needs of each student, those with significant challenges benefit the most when they are introduced to our college and our programs at an early age.

At Moorpark College, we serve a wide variety of students: English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged, disabled, foster youth, homeless, first-generation and disproportionally impacted, among others. We tailor services to these populations to address their specific needsand help them realize their dreams, whether they are transferring to a four-year institution or finding meaningful employment in our community.

Through dual enrollment, where high school students enroll in college classes, we see a greater number of high school students on our campuses. California has committed tremendous funding toward career education at high school and community college levels with the understanding that we will coordinate our efforts districtwide.

Moorpark College offers more than 75 exciting career education (CE) programs, such as biotechnology, computer network systems engineering (CNSE), data science and engineering. Many of these programs are designed to assist underserved populations in helping them progress from high school through our colleges to gainful and rewarding employment.

These partnerships also help older students reinvest in themselves to transition to high-tech, high-wage CE certificate programs at our colleges.

Moorpark College hosts summer and community-based pre-college activities, and special attention is focused on preparing students to be college-ready. This helps close the achievement gap for minority and low-income students.

Students are introduced to target programs in science and math classes through high school pathways. The goal of these programs is to make college less intimidating and to encourage confidence in attaining challenging and well-paid employment.

Here are just a few of the programs that we offer:

For students and families who think that college is a far-off dream, these programs offer a bridge to a new way of thinking about their future. I have seen this work in action at Moorpark College, and there is no greater or more exciting investment that we can make in the future of our community.

Lives are changed when our communitys younger students explore the technologies, equipment and practices of high-wage careers. This is especially true for students who thought college was an unattainable dream, beyond their socioeconomic means to achieve.

This is the contribution of Moorpark College to our community. Hand in hand is the communitys contribution of support for introducing young students to the opportunities available on our campuses.

Julius Sokenu, Ed.D., is the president of Moorpark College. To learn more about Moorpark College, visit MoorparkCollege.edu.

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Guest column: Bringing the 'community' back to community college - VC Star

Highlights

Magicbricks, the leading real estate firm, has chosen to grow its data science scale and is searching for individuals to join its data science stack for the completion of future foals. They are looking to employ more full-stack, mobile, and data science engineers as they transition into a full-stack service provider.

"We have expanded our data science team by 50% as we plan to utilize data science more in our work, unlike last year. By the end of this year, we wish to complete our team with 20+ team members, including AI engineers, data scientists, software engineers, big data engineers, and others,"Subodh Kumar, CTO of Magicbricks.

"This was not easy because tons of analysis and lots of insights were coming, which was leading us to data paralysis. So, we decided to restrict ourselves and started to focus on data classification and data moderation. We figured that other statistics can be looked at later. So, we force ourselves to focus on what kind of objective was meant for this, and that activated this model," Kumar explains.

Witnessing that data can lead them to make informed decisions, the business aimed to fully leverage its current data to transform magic bricks into a data-driven decision-making company.

He says, As India's real estate market is very unorganized, every information is lying in the pocket of the local agents, it will be a humongous task for a buyer because you would not have any authentic information. Since we are sitting on tons of data, how can we enable our business to make a data-driven decision and help our customer was our aim.

"We restricted to be self-driven. "Someone would send me the data," is the kind of thought process we had. So, an important factor for me was that whichever BI tool I had to select, it had to be user-friendly and not complex. The second factor was to choose what kind of richness that tool could give as a data presentation. With every tool having its pros and cons, we selected features that could be most beneficial. That was vital for us to bring in the data-driven culture," Kumar observes .

Read Also- CIOs in India find data-driven decision-making challengingData model vision With evolving market, Magicbricks is keen on focusing on models that are critical for business. Kumar states, "There are ample opportunities in real estate for data science. But our priority has been to fix those opportunities and then keep on expanding."

Currently, they intends to focus on improving its in-house recommendation engine, which employs a unique algorithm to offer customers the properties most relevant to their selection by combining the power of collaborative and content-based suggestions. The engine contains built-in tweaking that alters the algorithm output regularly. Multiple models make suggestions using various methodologies, and their platforms pool the results based on a dynamic allocation to different models based on the models' day-to-day performance.

"The platform ensures that sufficient recommendations are generated for each user by topping up with the rule-based recommendations in the absence of the required historical activity of the users. We want to invest more in that recommendation engine to get more Click Through Rate (CTR). So, if we have a 15% CTR right now, we want that to go to 30%-80% of CTR. We are working on it," he continued.

In addition, they are doing Proof of Concept (POC) for every technology that is on the market but will delay the adoption. "For example, we evaluated Virtual Reality (VR) three years ago but we haven't done anything on VR because we realize that VR may not be acceptable in the Indian market for now because if you develop it, it will be a fancy word for you but there will be no consumer using it. So, we keep a check on what technology is coming and what technology will work for our business advantage, Kumar reasoned.

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Magicbricks aims to strengthen data science focus; 50% team expansion by 2023 - ETCIO

The business analytics job market is booming. Organisations are collecting more data now than ever before, and the demand for technical and analytical expertise to analyse that data is ever-increasing. Decisions need to be better informed by this data and Purdue Universitys Krannert School of Management has the graduates that meet this industry demand.

Although there are many other programmes to choose from, not many can acquaint you with state-of-the-art information technologies and analytical techniques that can be applied to all levels of an organisation. The Krannert School of Management offers two programmes that can help you do this and fulfil your dreams of landing that high-paying job in tech youve always wanted.

The Master of Science in Business Analytics and Information Management (MSBAIM) will help develop your existing skills, while teaching you the know-how of big data technologies such as Python, Rstudio, Excel, SQL, SAS, Minitab, and Gurobi. The 11-month in-residence a feat made possible by its rigorous curriculum and track record in producing industry leaders. The best part? It is open to students of STEM and non-STEM backgrounds and prepares them for success in various roles.

Michael Jonelis, who graduated in May 2022, confirms this. The great thing about the MSBAIM programme is that no matter what your background is, you can get set up for the future you want, he says. Having a background in business, Im more interested in the courses in analytics and data science. Some of my classmates have strong coding skills and are more interested in learning econ, marketing, and operations. Either way, were able to prepare for the type of jobs were looking for when we graduate.

The MSBAIM degree is STEM-designated is which means successful graduates of the programme may be eligible for a STEM OPT extension. This is a 24-month period of temporary training that directly relates to an F-1 students programme of study in an approved STEM field, in addition to their initial period of regular post-completion OPT (often for 12 months).

These graduates are set for fulfilling lucrative careers. As many as 96% of recent graduates state they were satisfied with their decision to attend the MSBAIM programme. This should come as little surprise the programme has a 100% placement rate and an average graduate salary of US$121,632 (December 2021 graduates). For graduates, the average change in salary three years past their first placement is +$22,750. Five years out, its an average increase of $62,000.

What sets the Krannert School of Management apart is its emphasis on experiential learning. Both the MSBAIM and the Online Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) provide students with the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom to an equally applicable area in a thesis or a project. Referred to as Management Practicum the module was designed to polish and integrate the knowledge and skills students gain from their coursework so that they can translate that into analytics solutions for an industry partner. Select MSBAIM Management Practicum students compete in analytics competitions to showcase their analytics skills.

If you seek a secure, high-paying job that is also in demand right now, start with a masters degree from the Krannert School of Management. Source: Purdue University

Students continuously use what they learn even outside the classroom, according to Chandeepa Cooray, an Online MSBA student originally from Sri Lanka. The skill set and the theoretical knowledge that I learned from Krannerts Online MSBA programme is amazing. Every single day, every single minute at work, I get to use the knowledge, he says. All the programming languages I use, or things like forecasting and descent modelling, its used at work. So right now, Im learning and executing at the same time.

Like many other students, Cooray is a prime example of a successful graduate of the Online MSBA programme. Based on Krannerts residential MSBAIM, the programme has been consistently ranked in the top 10 in the US. Courses are taught by the same faculty teaching the in-residence MSBAIM.

Although as an undergraduate Cooray found online learning difficult, today its a convenient option now that he works for Subaru as a Senior Specialist in Operations. The flexibility of the 30-credit, 100% online programme, alongside its supportive and expert faculty, were some of the reasons why he chose to continue his studies at the Krannert School.

Above all else, it was the structure of the Online MSBA that he credits for his eventual success. You have deadlines, but you have flexibility. Everything is recorded thats the best thing. You wont miss anything, Cooray notes.

Besides being able to improve his time management skills, Cooray has learned Python, a skill that he has long since wanted to master for work. Im very new to Python, says Cooray, who is learning from faculty member Roy Dejoie. Ive built a tool to track all the damages to our parts. Before, it was on Excel. It was inefficient, he muses.

There is never a need to worry about not being able to take these skills you have learned at the Krannert School of Management to contribute to the workplace. This is partially due to the fact that Krannert is home to the Krenicki Center for Business Analytics and Machine Learning, a hub for businesses and students to find answers to data-driven business challenges. The centre hosts student-led consulting projects, conferences, and competitions, which also exponentially increases networking opportunities.

Are you ready to meet the demands of the business analytics sector? Apply now for the Master of Science in Business Analytics and Information Management (MSBAIM) and the Online Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) at Purdue University.

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Earn top-ranked business analytics master's degrees at Krannert School of Management - Study International News