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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the interpretation and social navigation of biometric technologies, such as fingerprinting, among young Somali migrants en route to Europe.

Paper long abstract:

Based on fieldwork in Somaliland, Turkey and Greece, this paper explores the ways in which electronic technologies influence young Somali migrants en route towards a desired destination. For Somali migrants, life and death en route are closely linked to divulgence up-to-date information, shared through mobile phones, that helps guide them in their movements through landscapes of continuous border controls characterized by constantly developing biometric technologies. Doing fieldwork among young Somalis in Greece who desired to move further into Europe in the search of a worthy life, I would often hear them ask each other: 'Did you get your fingers taken?' This question was motivated by the migrants' fear of having their fingerprint registered electronically in a country where they did not want to settle. In this paper I discuss how the Somali migrants interpreted, and sought to avoid, biometric registration in Greece. I am particularly concerned with the ways they attempted to get around the problems confronted due to receiving a biometric stamp (e.g. a fingerprint) that hindered their onward movement, quelling their hopes for a better life abroad (Amoore 2009).The paper thus explores the paradoxical relation between electronic technology as a way to manage uncertainty through the sharing of information, and electronic technology as a source of uncertainty through the involuntary divulgence and registration of information.