Suspicious Infrastructures
Automating Border Control and the Multiplication of Mistrust through Biometric E-Gates
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3948418 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Simon Sontowski (0000-0003-0545-3482, University of Zurich, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1117-1139 |
| Publication date | 2022-08-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geopolitics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14650045.2021.1952183 |
| OpenAlex | W3194040338 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 53 |
In recent years, practices of control at EU border crossing points have been progressively transferred to electronic gates, or what is often called Automated Border Control (ABC). In this paper, I unpack ABC’s infrastructure and argue that e-gates enact three distinct modes of suspicion: First, they address the mistrust towards travellers’ identity claims and promise to better detect identity fraud and the misuse of other persons’ ID documents. Second, they replace the manual work of border guards, which has itself been suspected of being unreliable and error-prone. Third, however, ABC has also raised suspicion among border guards and data protection advocates alike, due to its opaque mode of operation. To examine how these three modes of suspicion unfold, I first show that automating border control relies on a heterogeneous entanglement of material devices, calculative practices and new forms of data. Drawing on document analysis and participant observation of ABC, I then trace the socio-technical controversies that its proliferation has sparked, arguing that e-gates have significantly reconfigured how suspicion at the EU borders is enacted and led to a multiplication of mistrust in the European border regime
Aesthetics · Business · Computer security · Internet privacy · Law and economics · Political science · Sociology · Computer Science · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Sex work and related issues · Artificial Intelligence
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Interventions on rethinking 'the border' in border studies
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Trained to Disbelieve
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| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |