Driving social change from below: exploring the role of counter-security technologies in constructing mobile noncitizens

ABSTRACT

Information and communication technology held promise for quite a while as a potential instrument for instigating new rhetoric in public discourse, and a would-be generator of social change. This development has been particularly desired in the area of mobility and border control. In this paper, I further my analysis of counter-security technologies used by illegalised migrants, and explore its potential impact on how we conceptualise and engage with irregular migration. I look at the use of information and communication technology (such as smartphones and social media) in developing and adopting counter-accounts around migration that can assist in desecuritisation of the issue, and rehumanisation of border crossers. Ultimately, I argue, counter-security technologies could be instrumental in altering narratives pertinent to people on the move, and their transformation from illegalised non-citizens to (unhyphenated) noncitizens. As such, they are defined by the relationship with the state, in which their human rights and agency will be upheld.

KEYWORDS:

• ICTs
• counter-security technologies
• non-citizens
• irregular migration
• social change

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. See works of Sharon Pickering, Leanne Weber, Mary Bosworth, Martina Tazzioli, Vicki Squire, Reece Jones, Nicholas de Genova, Suvendrini Perera, and others on the lethality of borders.

2. Contrary to a news bulletin from the media and statements from government representatives that suggest, for example, that ‘illegal immigration is a serious threat to America’s national security’ (Roe 2012).

3. News companies such as RTL, Stern, Spiegel Online, NDR Germany, Al Jazeera, and Sputnik reported on #RefugeeCameras project. Visit http://kevin-mcelvaney.com/refugeecameras/for more info on the project and its impact.

4. A ‘children overboard’ incident in which the Australian Immigration Minister falsely accused migrants on unauthorised vessel SIEV 4 of threatening to throw their children overboard being just one example of this.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sanja Milivojevic

Dr. Sanja Milivojevic is a Research Fellow in Criminology at La Trobe, Melbourne and Associate Director of Border Criminologies at Oxford University. Sanja holds LL.B and LL.M from Belgrade University’s Law School, and PhD from Monash University, Australia. Sanja’s research interests are borders and mobility, security technologies and surveillance, gender and victimisation, and international criminal justice and human rights. She is a recipient of Australian and international research grants, and was NSW representative at the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology’s Committee of Management (2012-2016). Sanja has been a visiting scholar at University of Oxford, University of Oslo, Belgrade University and University of Zagreb, as well as a Public Interest Law Fellow at Columbia University’s Law School in New York. Sanja publishes in English and Serbian. Her latest bookBorder Policing and Security Technologies is published by Routledge (2019).