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Accepted Paper:
The use of digital technologies in the alternatives to immigration detention in Canada
Ana Ballesteros
(Complutense University of Madrid)
The immigration detention system in Canada is using digital technologies, such as electronic monitoring, for surveilling undocumented migrants in the community. The paper will unveil the impact of these technologies in the life of migrants as a result of data extraction and economic costs.
Paper long abstract:
Canada has used measures to supervise undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers in the community for decades. But in 2018, in order to expand and standardize the community supervision measures, the government implemented the called Alternatives to detention program (ATD). This program includes more traditional tools such as community case management with the use of digital technologies, for instance, voice reporting and electronic monitoring. Although electronic monitoring was planned as a pilot project for a limited geographical area and in-person reporting was initially prioritized over voice reporting, the situation has evolved over time. Furthermore, the perception that these tools are more humane and cost-effective than detention coexists with claims about the economic profits for private companies and also the extraction of data from migrants and asylum seekers without clear oversight. The paper will unveil the ways in which the use of technologies is contributing, but also giving new meanings, to patterns already identified in the Canadian immigration detention system, such as privatization or responsibilisation. Additionally, it is giving new shapes to the inclusionary-exclusionary forms of ‘illegal non-existence’ as a result of data extraction and the economic costs that these technologies may impose on those affected by them.