Miller Mayer immigration attorney Steve Yale-Loehr co-led a Cornell University project researching the extent to which immigrants know about their eligibility for public benefits. Through interviews with asylum applicants currently in the United States and healthcare and legal professionals working with asylum applicants and other immigrants, the study identified four key challenges and barriers to using digital tools: information uncertainty, accessibility, emotional barriers, and contextual sensitivity. The report provides recommendations to create digital tools for immigrants and the stakeholders who support them. The report can be found here.
A related article, “Better Digital Tools Could Help Immigrants Access Benefits,” published by the Cornell Chronicle, notes that fear of tracking hinders immigrants in accessing online resources and benefits. The article discusses the study’s recommendation to mitigate those concerns: websites, apps, social media, and other digital tools disseminating information to immigrants should collect the minimum personal data necessary and clearly state privacy policies. The research that Steve co-led resulted in development of a website to help immigrants understand their eligibility for certain public benefits, Rights 4 Health. The article can be found here.