Entangled in the technology-driven borderscape: Border crossers rendered to their digital self
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14773708221086717 |
| Author | Valeria Ferraris |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Entangled in the technology-
driven borderscape: Border
crossers rendered to their
digital self
Valeria Ferraris
Law Department, University of Turin, Italy
Abstract
EU management of migration is undergoing an unprecedented transformation because of the use
of databases and information systems. Drawing on the concept of border performativity, this art-
icle discusses how data is transforming the border. In particular, the article focuses on 1) how the
EU JHA databases are evolving, from separate systems each with one purpose to multi-purpose
databases, and 2) how the new EU plan –the interoperability regulation –connects and merges
biometric and biographical data, as part of a shift from a silo-based approach towards a single cen-
tralised information system. The article –based on results of several research projects carried out
between 2011 and 2019 adopting mixed methodology –discusses the border crossers’role in
challenging this digital border control, both in light of the current practices of data collection
and processing and newly approved EU regulations. The article argues that the transformation
of border control practices into practices driven by data processing makes it more difficult for
border crossers to manoeuvre the system and legally challenge decisions based on data processing,
thus, hampering the transformation of the border from below.
Keywords
Borders, crimmigration, databases, European union, technology
Introduction
The fact that EU management of migration is undergoing an unprecedented transform-
ation because of the use of databases and information systems is common knowledge
Corresponding author:
Valeria Ferraris, Associate Professor of Sociology of Law and Deviance, Law Department University of Turin,
Lungo Dora Siena 100, 10153 Torino, Italy.
Email: valeria.ferraris@unito.it
Article
European Journal of Criminology
2023, Vol. 20(5) 1740–1758
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/14773708221086717
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in the field. However, the analysis of the implications of this transformation are far from
being clearly defined, also due to the unpredictable rapidity of the ongoing changes.
This article aims to shed light on criminology of mobility (Pickering et al. 2014) on
technology at the border (Côté -Boucher 2020; Milivojevic, 2019), and in particular on
the recent evolution of EU databases in migration management, which have been only
rarely investigated (Aas 2011) in this field of research. Political scientists and legal scho-
lars have investigated the interaction between surveillance/security, technology and
policy, and also the risks for fundamental rights of the storage and processing of bio-
graphical data and biometrics (among the many, Bigo 2014; Custers et al. 2013;
Hoffmann, 2019; Lyon 2001, 2003).
This article elaborates on the concept of border performativity (Wonders, 2006) and
argues that the EU plan to connect and merge biometric and biographical data stored
in large-scale databases could represent a serious obstacle in the ability of migrants to
transform borders from below (Fernández-Bessa, 2019; Segrave and Wonders, 2019).
The article starts with the research path that led me to dig deeper into the technology
driven borderscape
1
(Perera, 2007). This section also represents an opportunity to reflect
upon several pieces of research that are apparently different and dispersed. Then, I clarify
the borderscape made of personalised borders and biometrics. In section three I clarify the
use of the concept of border performativity (Wonders 2006) and of transforming borders
from below (Segrave and Wonders 2019). The fourth section illustrates the EU Justice
and Home Affairs databases and their evolution in light of the interoperability initiative.
Taking into account the complexity of the topic and the limited public attention, I will
briefly present the large-scale databases involved in building the new single, centralised
repository to hold biometric and biographic data and what the interoperability operation
adds to the current picture. I will not focus on one particular database because the risk of
diminishing the agency of border crossers involves visa applicants, asylum seekers, as
well as visa exempt travellers. The last section discusses the risk that such development
of the technology driven borderscape seriously hampers the ability of migrants to trans-
form borders from below, in particular to bypass or manoeuvre the rules and legally chal-
lenge the digital management of migration. By summarising the effects of data on the
potential of migrants to realise such transformation, the conclusion also provides insights
on further research.
Methodological background
This paper is a theoretical reflection based upon a wide and long period of desk research
and field work I carried out between 2011 and 2019 within the scope of different projects
related to digitalisation of control at the border of Europe.
The methodological approach that I employed is based on grounded theory (Glaser
and Strauss, 1967) which allows the researcher to develop theory from fieldwork in a flex-
ible but systematic way (Charmaz, 2014) using ‘the ability to recognise and extract from
the data elements that have relevance for your emerging theory’(Birks and Mills, 2015:
58), even ‘constructing a theoretical explanation of puzzling findings’(Charmaz et al.
2018: 721). This ability requires one to assume a reflexive position (Birks and Mills,
2015) that helps pinpoint how the researchers view the object of their study.
Ferraris 1741
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