On Digital Passages and Borders: Refugees and the New Infrastructure for Movement and Control

Abstract

Since 2014, millions of refugees and migrants have arrived at the borders of Europe. This article argues that, in making their way to safe spaces, refugees rely not only on a physical but increasingly also digital infrastructure of movement. Social media, mobile devices, and similar digitally networked technologies comprise this infrastructure of "digital passages"-sociotechnical spaces of flows in which refugees, smugglers, governments, and corporations interact with each other and with new technologies. At the same time, a digital infrastructure for movement can just as easily be leveraged for surveillance and control. European border policies, in particular, instantiate digital controls over refugee movement and identity. We review the actors, technologies, and policies of movement and control in the EU context and argue that scholars, policymakers, and the tech community alike should pay heed to the ethics of the use of new technologies in refugee and migration flows.

Toward an ordinary ethics of mediated humanitarianism: An agenda for ethnography

“…Refugees and disaster-affected communities are dehumanized as they become data points, their voices scrambled and garbled when captured and distorted by "innovative" audit systems of humanitarian agencies (Latonero and Kift, 2018). This is alarming and convincing, but certainly not the last word.…”

Popular Communications in the Populist Political Moment: Editorial Introduction to Special Issue 'Refugee Socialities and the Media'

“…We recognize here that discourses around humanitarian technologies have changed quite dramatically from the initial celebration that greeted them in the sector and that many academics have argued against (Chouliaraki, 2013;Latonero & Kift, 2018;Madianou et al, 2015;Ong & Combinido, 2018). With greater awareness of the vulnerabilities of digital and mobile platforms to circulating disinformation and "fake news" (Marwick & Lewis, 2017;Ong & Cabañes, 2018), even promoting "state-sponsored trolling" (Nyst & Monaco, 2018), we are alarmed at the potentials of digital platforms to cause or exacerbate humanitarian crises.…”

The politics of big borders: Data (in)justice and the governance of refugees

“…These processes associated with the collection of personal and biometric data as a form of geographical containment speak to the "internalisation" of borders in which the increasing focus on the human body as a definitive form of identification means we carry the border with us wherever we go and cannot escape it (Latonero and Kift 2018). Personal data becomes an individual's means of crossing borders and receiving vital aid whilst navigating asylum procedures and surviving in refugee camps and hotspots.…”

“…Whilst these developments have led to the internalisation of border control, data systems have also led to an "externalisation" of borders through the remote control of border security (Latonero and Kift 2018). Developments in digital surveillance technologies such as cameras, drones, integrated surveillance systems and GIS-based risk analysis methods have enabled a change in both how border control efforts are carried out as well as how people experience border crossing attempts (Topak, 2014:819).…”

“…This is particularly pertinent as such digital infrastructure, like borders themselves, are polysemic and double-edged. They afford agency within migratory routes yet open up further paths of surveillance and exploitation (Latonero and Kift 2018;Gillespie et al, 2018;Leurs and Smets, 2018). We are, therefore, confronted with a complex and comprehensive border regime that encompasses a range of technologies, locations and practices that cannot be reduced to any one actor or directional gaze.…”