2024/25

Building on our previous discussion about the externalisation of borders and the changing nature of physical borders, this week we will focus on a relatively recent phenomenon: the datafication of mobility through digital technologies. Scholars often refer to these developments as ‘digital borders’ or ‘virtual borders’. In our seminar, we will investigate how various digital technologies enable the registration, monitoring, and control of migrants at multiple stages: before they reach physical borders, at the borders themselves, and within national territories. We will analyse how digital borders function, the infrastructures that support them, and how they may alter the power dynamics of nation-states in tracking and ‘managing’ migrants. To guide our discussion, we will explore the concepts introduced in Broeders and Dijstelbloem’s chapter, particularly the idea of ‘stretched screens’, which offers an overview of the datafication of mobility in the context of the European Union through large-scale information systems.