Reassembling the surveillable refugee body in the era of data-craving

Martin Lemberg-Pedersen; Eman Hassen Mohamed Haioty

doi:10.1080/13621025.2020.1784641

Reassembling the surveillable refugee body in the era of data-craving

Martin Lemberg-Pedersen, Eman Hassen Mohamed Haioty

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)

112 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article traces the travel of biometric data of Syrian refugees in Jordan through a hastily evolving political economy characterized by a pervasive craving for the extraction, storage and brokering of displacement data. It analyzes iris-enrollment as problematic acts of quasi-citizenship for the displaced requiring the performance of social and economic docility in order to attain identity, cash and service provision. Quasi-objects in the form of digital footprints are fashioned through infrastructures that simultaneously seek to model, yet fail to capture, socioeconomic existence in displacement contexts. Discourses of anti-fraud, donor dictates, upward accountability and strategies of financial inclusion of ‘the unbanked’, facilitate the marketization of the creation of data-doubles in laboratories of displacement and loopholes for externalization. Driven by increasingly blurred lines between technological, humanitarian and financial interests, this development has transformative effects on both those displaced, and on a humanitarian sector tasked with safeguarding their rights.

Original language	English
Journal	Citizenship Studies
Volume	24
Issue number	5
ISSN	1362-1025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2020.1784641
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2020

Bibliographical note

Martin Lemberg-Pedersen is assistant professor in Global Refugee Studies at the Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University. His research interests involve interdisciplinary analyses of European and Western displacement governance, including asylum politics, border control, deportation and military-indudstrial relations in postcolonial displacement politics. He has researched EU relations to Greek, Turkish and Libyan migration politics as well as precedents to current Western displacement politics during the transatlantic slave trade. His publications have appeared in Global Affairs, Questions of International Law, Politik, Energy Policy and the Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics.

Eman Haioty is an independent researcher. She studied at the IT University of Copenhagen and graduated with a Masters of Science in Digitial Innovation and Management. Her graduate thesis concerned the application of biometric technologies in refugee management and the transforma- tion of the refugee body into a surveillable body. Presently, she explores the interconnection between science and technology studies, information security and intersectionality.

Keywords

Biometrics
humanitarianism
unbanked
displacement data
surveillance capitalism
UNHCR
Accenture
World Bank Group

Access to Document

10.1080/13621025.2020.1784641

Re assembling the surveillable refugee body in the era of data craving 6.6.2020 PUBLISHEDFinal published version, 596 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

AUB Link

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The Marketization of Displacement
Lemberg-Pedersen, M.
01/09/2018 → 31/08/2021
Project: Research

2 Conference presentations
1 Organisation or participation in workshops, courses, seminars, exhibitions or similar
1 Membership of research networks or expert groups

Advisory Board, Data and Displacement: Assessing the Practical and Ethical Implications of Targeting Humanitarian Protection (Event)
Martin Lemberg-Pedersen (Member)
1 Jul 2020 → 30 Jun 2022
Activity: Memberships › Membership of research networks or expert groups
Postcoloniality and Extractivist Bioeconomies of Displacement
Martin Lemberg-Pedersen (Lecturer)
11 Dec 2019
Activity: Talks and presentations › Conference presentations
DIGINAUTS - MIGRANTS' DIGITAL PRACTICES IN AND OF THE EUROPEAN BORDER REGIME
Johanne Rübner Hansen (Speaker) & Martin Lemberg-Pedersen (Speaker)
24 Oct 2019
Activity: Talks and presentations › Conference presentations

Data: Derfor kan afviste asylansøgere være i større fare efter hjemsendelse fra Danmark
Martin Lemberg-Pedersen
01/02/2019
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media

Cite this

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abstract = "This article traces the travel of biometric data of Syrian refugees in Jordan through a hastily evolving political economy characterized by a pervasive craving for the extraction, storage and brokering of displacement data. It analyzes iris-enrollment as problematic acts of quasi-citizenship for the displaced requiring the performance of social and economic docility in order to attain identity, cash and service provision. Quasi-objects in the form of digital footprints are fashioned through infrastructures that simultaneously seek to model, yet fail to capture, socioeconomic existence in displacement contexts. Discourses of anti-fraud, donor dictates, upward accountability and strategies of financial inclusion of {\textquoteleft}the unbanked{\textquoteright}, facilitate the marketization of the creation of data-doubles in laboratories of displacement and loopholes for externalization. Driven by increasingly blurred lines between technological, humanitarian and financial interests, this development has transformative effects on both those displaced, and on a humanitarian sector tasked with safeguarding their rights.",

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note = "Martin Lemberg-Pedersen is assistant professor in Global Refugee Studies at the Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University. His research interests involve interdisciplinary analyses of European and Western displacement governance, including asylum politics, border control, deportation and military-indudstrial relations in postcolonial displacement politics. He has researched EU relations to Greek, Turkish and Libyan migration politics as well as precedents to current Western displacement politics during the transatlantic slave trade. His publications have appeared in Global Affairs, Questions of International Law, Politik, Energy Policy and the Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics. Eman Haioty is an independent researcher. She studied at the IT University of Copenhagen and graduated with a Masters of Science in Digitial Innovation and Management. Her graduate thesis concerned the application of biometric technologies in refugee management and the transforma- tion of the refugee body into a surveillable body. Presently, she explores the interconnection between science and technology studies, information security and intersectionality. ",

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AB - This article traces the travel of biometric data of Syrian refugees in Jordan through a hastily evolving political economy characterized by a pervasive craving for the extraction, storage and brokering of displacement data. It analyzes iris-enrollment as problematic acts of quasi-citizenship for the displaced requiring the performance of social and economic docility in order to attain identity, cash and service provision. Quasi-objects in the form of digital footprints are fashioned through infrastructures that simultaneously seek to model, yet fail to capture, socioeconomic existence in displacement contexts. Discourses of anti-fraud, donor dictates, upward accountability and strategies of financial inclusion of ‘the unbanked’, facilitate the marketization of the creation of data-doubles in laboratories of displacement and loopholes for externalization. Driven by increasingly blurred lines between technological, humanitarian and financial interests, this development has transformative effects on both those displaced, and on a humanitarian sector tasked with safeguarding their rights.

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KW - surveillance capitalism

KW - UNHCR

KW - Accenture

KW - World Bank Group

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DO - 10.1080/13621025.2020.1784641

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ER -

Reassembling the surveillable refugee body in the era of data-craving

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

AUB Link

Fingerprint

Projects

The Marketization of Displacement

Activities

Advisory Board, Data and Displacement: Assessing the Practical and Ethical Implications of Targeting Humanitarian Protection (Event)

Postcoloniality and Extractivist Bioeconomies of Displacement

DIGINAUTS - MIGRANTS' DIGITAL PRACTICES IN AND OF THE EUROPEAN BORDER REGIME

Press/Media

Data: Derfor kan afviste asylansøgere være i større fare efter hjemsendelse fra Danmark

Cite this