Border Controls, Politics and Digitization

Lincoln Alexander School of Law

This event is part of the Lincoln Alexander Law Speaker Series 2023/24

As academic research has confirmed, there is no single form of security (national or global) but rather, multiple forms of security that are contradictory and can be mutually destructive. This is the case between predictive security and evidence-based security relating to a specific individual. Predictive security is rooted in suspicions and anticipations of behaviours that seek to prevent the entry of persons who might be unwanted. It is founded on the anticipation of actions based on risk profiles and statistical categories. Nowhere is the use of predictive security tools increasing more rapidly than in the area of border controls and visa processing. But what is lost in these processes is the focus on individual circumstances and the reasons for the patterns which their data might produce. The objective of this presentation is to analyze how the politics of digital suspicion affects travellers seeking entry or transit visas. With a view to the consequences for individuals, we will analyze what groups are in charge of elaborating these policies and the link between private providers and public authorities, as well as the declared objectives and the difficulties of constructing reliable and relevant data. <h3>DATE: March 28, 2024</h3><h3>TIME: 12 - 1 p.m. (Lunch will be served!)</h3><h3>LOCATION: Lincoln Alexander School of Law, POD-457</h3> ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Didier Bigo is a part-time professor of International Political Sociology at the Department of War Studies, King's College London, and professeur émérite de sociologie politique internationale at Sciences Po Paris- CERI. He is also the Director of the Centre d’ Etudes sur les Conflits, la Liberté, la Sécurité (CECLS), and co-editor of Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences (PARISS).

Elspeth Guild is a Jean Monnet Professor ad personam in law at Queen Mary University of London and Emerita Professor at Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands. She is also a visiting professor at the College of Europe, Bruges and Legal Counsel for the London based law firm, Kingsley Napley. She regularly advises EU institutions on migration and asylum-related matters, and has written studies for the European Parliament on the European dimension of the refugee crisis in 2016, Euro-Mediterranean cooperation on migration in 2020, and Visas for Human Rights Defenders in 2023.

The Lincoln Alexander Law Speaker Series brings together distinguished scholars, activists, and practitioners to discuss today's most pressing legal issues. These sessions are interactive and offer the opportunity to engage with speakers on their scholarly projects in law. The series creates a venue to present a body of work in a forum that is open to students, faculty, and staff.