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Short abstract:

Corporations are integral to European border controls building upon histories of racial capitalism and entrenching a profit-driven system that fuels racial inequalities. This paper explores the coloniality of Europe’s borders to consider the intricate political economy of datafied mobility regimes.

Long abstract:

The turn to data-driven technologies in contemporary migration governance in Europe has created a complex web of corporate actors that are now instrumental in shaping the life-chances of displaced populations across Europe's external and internal borders. From biometrics to mobile communication, private computational infrastructures increasingly underpin the processes by which people on the move are recognised, racialised, assessed, tracked and controlled by border technologies. When considering this, it becomes imperative to explore how histories of racial capitalism impact upon lucrative AI markets through the investment of capital in border security industries that work to further stratify regimes of mobility. To interrogate the ways in which racial capitalism becomes implicit to understanding practices of technologically aided border security, I will discuss the coloniality of Europe’s (datafied) borders. I will present findings my previous doctoral work as part of DATAJUSTICE project, as well drawing on ongoing investigations as part of an ESRC funded research fellowship conducting policy analysis of European discourses of securitisation. My findings uncover how processes of racialisation and the entrenchment of colonial hierarchies of humanity become key to the continued investment in border technology markets, where illegalised migrants are depicted as a security problem to be solved through the reliance upon private actors. These insights allow us to better understand the intricate political economy of the increasingly privatised, profit driven, and punitive border controls in Europe.