Digital Confinement. The Reconfigurations of Borders and Detention Through New Technologies. (2021-2023)
Reintegration Fellowship from the Carlsberg Foundation
The objective of the project are threefold. 1) to map the larger economic, political interest which promote the use of tech for internal border control, 2) to develop the concept of digital confinement and understand the spatial and temporal experiences of migrants submitted to these new technologies, through ethnographic fieldwork and collaborative visual research and 3) to foster research collaboration on the urgent question of ethics in research involving tech and vulnerable populations.
The use of new technologies for immigration control is expanding rapidly, as tech giants are investing in immigration enforcement, a market that was, until recently, dominated by technologies developed by government agencies themselves or by contractors from the prison or military industrial complex. The US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is currently installing facial recognition software on the cell-phones of asylum seekers as an alternative to immigration detention and has started collaborations with tech companies for the extractions of larger, complex datasets involving migrants and citizens who assist them within US borders.
The project conceptualizes ‘Digital Confinement’ and the ways in which detention and internal border control are reconfigured through new technologies. While drawing on and developing existing theories on the spatial and temporal dimensions of confinement, it works with the hypothesis that the deployment of tech, such as facial recognition as an alternative to detention, implies a transformation of detainability and deportability, that is, the experienced risk of being detained and deported. Beyond its theoretical significance for confinement and migration research, the project will contribute to the wider scholarly debates on public/private partnerships, on surveillance capitalism and the protection of personal data, also within the context of scientific research itself.
Announcement from the Carlsberg Foundation.
FEBRuary 2024 American Bar ASSOCIATION
American Bar Association Commission on Immigration report:
Electronic Monitoring of Migrants: Punitive not Prudent
January 25, 2023 American Bar ASSOCIATION
Electronic Monitoring of Migrants: Alternative to Detention or Just Another Form of Punitive Custody?
This webinar discusses the dramatic rise in the use of electronic monitoring of migrants, including through ankle monitors and phone app technology. It asks whether electronic monitoring presents a positive move away from immigration detention for migrants or instead expands government deprivation of liberty by increasing the number of migrants impacted and the length of time they remain in some form of custody. Our panel also examines the cost and effectiveness of monitoring as a means of fulfilling the purported justification for both detention and monitoring–ensuring that migrants appear for their immigration proceedings. In doing so, the panelists consider electronic monitoring of migrants carried out by private companies in the context of the “What Works” literature on the management of pre-trial situations. Finally, the webinar offers migrant perspectives on the experience of living with electronic surveillance and considers negative consequences of widespread monitoring, including medical and other impacts.
Panelists
- Dr. Scott A. Allen, Medical Director, The Access Clinic, University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
- Dr. Austin Kocher, Research Assistant Professor, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
- Dr. Carolina Sanchez Boe, Carlsberg Fellow, IMC, Aarhus University, Affiliate of The Social Anatomy of a Deportation Regime, City University of New York
- Dr. Dora B. Schriro, Special Advisor, ABA Commission on Immigration; Corrections Expert and Advisor
Moderator
- Denise L. Gilman, Director, Immigration Clinic, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law; Clinical Professor, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law; Member, Immigration Advisory Commission, ABA Commission on Immigration; Liaison to the ABA Commission on Immigration, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice
Joint Sponsor: ABA Commission on Immigration
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/events_cle/recent/electronic-monitoring-of-migrants
Carolina Sanchez Boe 