Identification as translation: The art of choosing the right spokespersons at the securitized border

Abstract

This article pursues a translational approach to the securitization of migration. It argues that sociotechnical processes of identification at the border can be conceived of as translations into legible identities of individuals who are unknown to authorities. The article contributes to the materiality debate on securitization across Critical Security Studies (CSS) and Science and Technology Studies (STS) by answering the call to conduct empirical explorations of security, and by revisiting the potential of the early sociology of translation (i.e. actor-network theory) to account for the identification of border crossers. Data collection was conducted at four identification facilities in the Hellenic Republic. Three sets of implications for the CSS-STS debate on the materiality of securitization are discussed. First, a translational approach can replace a representational understanding of identity with a performative apprehension of identification. Second, adopting a translational approach leads to acknowledge that the identification encounter is mediated by multiple, heterogeneous actors. It thus helps to open technological black boxes and reveal the key role of material qualities, affordances and limitations of artefacts. Third, a translational approach to the securitization of migration can help advance the field of ‘alterity processing’ by appreciating the de facto re-arrangements of institutional orders elicited by techno-political alignments with global security regimes.

‘Request Denied’: Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation and Treason for Border and Migration Studies

“…This brief and necessarily selective overview showcases the analytical potential of a sociology of translation for the study of borders and migration. It highlights in particular the capacity of a sociology of translation to account for the material dimension of migration and its management and to unpack the often 'black-boxed' inner workings of related technologies and knowledge practices (Glouftsios and Scheel 2020;Pelizza 2021). A second analytical advantage attributed to a sociology of translation is that it permits scholars to move beyond a representational mode of critique of knowledge production in the context of border and migration management (Pelizza 2021;Scheel 2021;Scheel, Ruppert, and Ustek-Spilda 2019).…”

“…It highlights in particular the capacity of a sociology of translation to account for the material dimension of migration and its management and to unpack the often 'black-boxed' inner workings of related technologies and knowledge practices (Glouftsios and Scheel 2020;Pelizza 2021). A second analytical advantage attributed to a sociology of translation is that it permits scholars to move beyond a representational mode of critique of knowledge production in the context of border and migration management (Pelizza 2021;Scheel 2021;Scheel, Ruppert, and Ustek-Spilda 2019). Instead of assuming that scientific methods, surveillance technologies and other inscription devices simply measure and more or less perfectly represent realities that already exist 'out there', ANT and post-ANT approaches start from the assumption that knowledge practices are enabled by sociotechnical networks which help to enact -that is: bring into being and perform -the very realities they allegedly only measure and describe (Law 2009).…”

“…This is why a sociology of translation and the post-ANT inspired by it are also referred to as material-semiotic approaches (Law 2009). One line of inquiry in which a sociology of translation and post-ANT approaches have been particularly productive concerns the study of the procedures, devices and infrastructures through which migrants and travellers hitherto unknown to authorities are translated into legible subjects (Bellanova and Fuster 2013;Glouftsios 2018;Glouftsios and Scheel 2020;Pelizza 2021;Pollozek and Passoth 2019;Rogier 2019;Schouten 2014). Pollozek and Passoth (2019) combine, for instance, a 'logistical gaze' with a post-ANT approach to investigate how migrants crossing the Mediterranean to the Greek island of Lesvos are rendered governable and containable at the 'hotspot' Moria 4 through a detailed analysis of the processes and technologies involved in first registration procedures.…”

“…Hence, the task of an ANT-inspired analysis is to 'follow the actors' (Latour 2007, 12) and describe how they are translated as they engage in shifting sociotechnical networks 'in which bits and pieces from the social, the technical, the conceptual and the textual are fitted together' (Law 1992, 381). This makes ANT a promising approach for studying the procedures, devices and infrastructures through which mobile people hitherto unknown to authorities are translated into legible subjects at sites of border and migration control, as a growing body of scholarship demonstrates (Bellanova and Fuster 2013;Glouftsios 2018;Glouftsios and Scheel 2020;Pelizza 2021;Pollozek and Passoth 2019;Rogier 2019;Schouten 2014).…”

“…Within this line of research, numerous studies mobilise an ANT-inspired framework to move beyond a representationalist mode of critique of authorities' efforts to create legible subjects (e.g. Glouftsios and Scheel 2020;Pelizza 2021;Pollozek and Passoth 2019;Scheel 2021). What the following analysis adds to this body of literature is that it shows how ANTinspired analyses -if complemented by a grammar of treason -allow for a detailed study of the mechanisms of power at work in these border encounters that accounts for related struggles, contestations, the use of coercion and violence as well as instances of friction, mistranslation and break-down.…”