Datafied borders as opaque immigration policy: Demystifying complex data infrastructures at the border

数据化边境是不透明的移民政策：揭开边境复杂数据基础设施的神秘面纱

• 批准号: ES/Y010418/1
• 金额: $ 12.84万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FY010418%2F1
• 关键词: Datafied; borders; opaque; immigration; policy

There is currently a proliferation of technology within the field of immigration control, much of which is designed to track, identify, detain and deport illegalised migrants. Policy developments such as the European Artificial Intelligence Act, the expansion of biometric migration databases, the use of drones at the land border with Turkey or across the English Channel, and the creation of high-tech refugee camps in Greece demonstrate the growing importance of technology within securitised and hostile immigration policy. At the same time, 'seamless' airports are also under development, where security gates cease to exist as technology tracks and identifies travellers moving through the airport. This is often presented as a vast improvement for 'desirable' travellers, as the onus is on cutting down waiting times at airports. But what is the impact for those whose mobility rights are curtailed, for those who are illegalised and excluded, for those from former colonies or those fleeing persecution, who are denied freedom of movement and subject to scrutiny at every turn? This fellowship will address these important and complex questions, exploring disparate experiences of digital borders. Here, technologies include expansive data infrastructures including migration databases, everyday technologies such as phones or cash cards, and increasingly sophisticated surveillance technologies at physical borders. As part of the ERC funded DATAJUSTICE project, I undertook ethnographic fieldwork for my PhD in Greece and the UK between Oct 2018 and Jan 2021. I worked with migrant solidarity groups conducting participant observation and interviews with 72 interlocutors, including displaced people, civil society actors, volunteers and activists, NGO workers, lawyers, border guards and asylum staff. I engaged with datafied borders as ongoing sites of contestation, struggle, and governance. The fellowship will allow me to return to the UK and Greece to understand the fast-moving changes within the field considering the increasingly contested nature of technology used for migration control. Building on my doctoral research, I will focus on how developments impact the lived realities and violence that displaced people face in Europe today. To establish myself as a leading scholar in the field of critical border studies, I will create research outputs including journal articles, a book proposal, a blog, workshop series and future funding proposals. The two core aims of the fellowship are to decolonise and demystify technologies used within border regimes. I will do so through the creation of accessible resources to reach audiences beyond academia and impact civil society groups, campaigns, and policy. I will organise a collaborative workshop series that will bring together impacted communities, activists, civil society groups, and academics working on the issue of rights across (datafied) borders to collectively visualise what steps could be taken to decolonise border technologies. These ideas will generate a series of blog entries, using both visual designs and text, culminating in a widely accessible zine. The aim of this is to demystify complex border technologies, often described as a black box, which has thus far limited the depth of community engagement and wider public scrutiny of their development. The funding proposal I will develop will build upon these activities and use findings from the limited follow up research to explore how the historical and ongoing deployment of datafied means of identification, surveillance, and containment impact the everyday experiences of illegalised migrants, including their access to asylum, health and social care and other fundamental rights. It will do so to highlight the histories of such developments, as well as imagine decolonial futures, where border technologies may help people to move safely, opposed to pushing them to ever more dangerous routes as a means of crossing borders undetected.

目前，移民控制领域的技术不断涌现，其中大部分旨在追踪、识别、拘留和驱逐非法移民。 《欧洲人工智能法案》、生物识别移民数据库的扩展、在与土耳其陆地边界或跨越英吉利海峡使用无人机以及在希腊建立高科技难民营等政策发展表明技术的重要性日益增强安全化和敌对的移民政策。与此同时，“无缝”机场也在开发中，随着技术跟踪和识别穿过机场的旅客，安全门已不复存在。这通常被认为是对“理想”旅行者的巨大改进，因为他们的责任在于减少机场的等待时间。但是，对于那些流动权受到限制的人、那些被非法化和被排除在外的人、那些来自前殖民地或逃离迫害、被剥夺行动自由并处处受到审查的人来说，这会产生什么影响呢？该奖学金将解决这些重要而复杂的问题，探索数字边界的不同体验。这里的技术包括广泛的数据基础设施（包括迁移数据库）、电话或现金卡等日常技术，以及物理边界日益复杂的监控技术。作为 ERC 资助的 DATAJUSTICE 项目的一部分，我于 2018 年 10 月至 2021 年 1 月期间在希腊和英国进行了人种学实地考察，攻读博士学位。我与移民团结团体合作，对 72 名对话者进行参与观察和采访，其中包括流离失所者、民间社会参与者、志愿者和活动人士、非政府组织工作人员、律师、边防人员和庇护工作人员。我将数据化边界视为持续的争论、斗争和治理的场所。考虑到用于移民控制的技术的竞争日益激烈，这项奖学金将使我能够返回英国和希腊，了解该领域内快速变化的变化。在我的博士研究的基础上，我将重点关注事态发展如何影响当今欧洲流离失所者面临的现实和暴力。为了使自己成为关键边界研究领域的领先学者，我将创作研究成果，包括期刊文章、书籍提案、博客、研讨会系列和未来的资助提案。该奖学金的两个核心目标是使边境制度内使用的技术去殖民化和神秘化。我将通过创建可访问的资源来接触学术界以外的受众并影响民间社会团体、活动和政策来实现这一目标。我将组织一个协作研讨会系列，将受影响的社区、活动人士、民间社会团体和致力于跨（数据化）边界权利问题的学者聚集在一起，共同设想可以采取哪些步骤来实现边界技术非殖民化。这些想法将产生一系列使用视觉设计和文本的博客条目，最终形成一本广泛传播的杂志。这样做的目的是揭开复杂的边境技术的神秘面纱，这些技术通常被描述为黑匣子，迄今为止，这些技术限制了社区参与的深度和更广泛的公众对其发展的监督。我将制定的资助提案将建立在这些活动的基础上，并利用有限的后续研究的结果来探索历史上和正在进行的数据化识别、监视和遏制手段的部署如何影响非法移民的日常经历，包括他们获得庇护、健康和社会关怀以及其他基本权利。这样做是为了强调此类发展的历史，并想象非殖民化的未来，边境技术可以帮助人们安全移动，而不是把他们推向更加危险的路线，作为不被发现的跨越边界的手段。