The Transformation of EU Borders: Artificial Intelligence, Structures and Agency

This paper scrutinises the political economy of border control and its key actors in the context of recent policy and technological changes in entry governance and migration/asylum management in the European Union. It posits that border processes and evolving technologies, especially Artificial Intelligence, constitute deeply political issues, intertwining with significant economic interests. Increased migration flows towards the EU countries over the last decade, and especially irregular migration flows have triggered a new migration management agenda defined by technological innovations. The EU has been exploring and advancing the ways AI technologies can be employed in order to enhance border control and security. Several applications, such as biometric identification, emotion detection and AI lie detectors, big data predictions regarding population movements, and migration monitoring, have been implemented or experimented at the EU borders. AI technologies have the potential to improve efficiency in border control and security while detecting fraud, and effectively analysing risks. Nevertheless, these powerful technologies also present significant challenges, particularly due to their inconsistent accuracy and the risks they pose to fundamental human rights. The ethical, legal and efficacy issues that arise become more conspicuous when intertwined with the political economy of AI processes, market dynamics and powerful lobbyism in the biometrics and surveillance sector. Drawing on the literature that points out challenges on the legal, ethical and efficiency level, like for example migrants’ data privacy, algorithmic accountability, and fairness, this paper will address the ways AI technologies have affected civic and human rights in the context of migration in the EU, the role of actors and discourses in the technologised borderisation and body datafication processes. In this context, it will also scrutinise the understudied correlation between the rising necessity for border technological investments and terrorism and crime.