Symposium introduction: the ethics of border controls in a digital age

ABSTRACT

This symposium brings into conversation normative political theory on migration and critical border/migration studies, with a particular focus on digital border control technology. Normative theorists have long been concerned with questions about the extent and nature of control over migration that the state should exercise, and the balance of rights and duties between states and migrants. To date, however, there has been little reflection among such theorists on digital border control technology. Critical border/migration studies scholars, on the other hand, have paid considerable attention to the rapid development of digital technology in the border control/mobility management space, and revealed a range of problems with the technology itself and the ways it is deployed. What has thus far been lacking, however, is sustained ethical reflection on what should be done about the use of this technology. The papers in this symposium thus seek to bring these two groups of scholars together and to prompt what we hope will be a sustained conversation on these rapidly evolving and deeply problematic practices. This introduction contextualises the issue at the heart of this symposium – the rapid expansion of digital border controls and the ethical challenges that these pose – and offers brief summaries of the contributions.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital borders
• surveillance
• dataveillance
• immigration
• open borders

Notes

1 The focus of the papers in this symposium, on digital border control practices, joins some emerging work on other border control practices including on deportation and detention. See, e.g. Anderson, Gibney, and Paoletti 2011; Lenard 2015; Mendoza 2015; Sager 2017; Silverman 2016.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Natasha Saunders

Natasha Saunders is a Lecturer in the School of International Relations, University of St Andrews. Her research sits at the intersection of global politics and political theory. She has a particular interest in issues of forced migration, human rights, digital border control practices, and migrant resistance.

Alex Sager

Alex Sager is a Professor of Philosophy and University Studies at Portland State University. His research focuses on the ethics of migration.