1.     Raffaella Pagogna (MA), PhD Candidate, University of Vienna

Disciplining migration aspirations: Looking into the role of new media and information campaigns to prevent irregular migration in Ethiopia

The emerging new mobility regime is centered around the notion, that human mobility should take place orderly, without disrupting, disturbing or challenging the existing order of things and thus, should be transformed from a complex multifaceted reality into a manageable and predictable one. One strategy of migration control and disciplining mobility are information campaigns to prevent human trafficking and irregular migration. In the past few years, states and governmental agencies have developed a rather diverse repertoire of border-control, respectively measures to discipline unwanted mobility, ones that ought to communicate directly to the ‘hearts and minds’ of the targeted population through new media. In this paper the discourses and underlying assumptions of information campaigns in Ethiopia like “dangerous crossings”, a multimedia campaign from UNHCR targeting the dangers of crossing the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea from Africa, should be analyzed. Discussing how these mass-media strategies aiming for deterrence are part of the new digital securitization processes. Finding that they might not be particularly effective in curbing migration attempts, but help create a climate in which border-control measures appear as both necessary to “stem the floods” and as humanitarian efforts to come to the aid of irregular migrants. This paper is situated within the work on my PhD project “The future in (im)mobility: aspirations and desires to migrate and the role of ICT in Ethiopia”. 

2.     Dr. Rianne Dekker, Lecturer, Utrecht University School of Governance, Prof. Dr. Godfried Engbersen, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Dr. Jeanine Klaver, Project leader & senior researcher, Regioplan Policy Research

Social media shaping migration decision-making: Comparing migrant groups with different levels of agency

Over the past decades, smartphones and social media have increasingly shaped migrant journeys (McAuliffe et al. 2018). They provide migrants with new sources of information that is valuable in migration decision-making. Information shared through social media not only comes from official sources, but is ‘streetwise’: timely, practice-based and personal. This highly relevant in migrant journeys, but it also brings risks of misinformation and surveillance. This paper reflects on differences in accessing social media and validating information from social media between groups of migrants that are seen as having relatively high levels of agency (labor migrants, family migrants, students) and a group of migrants that has relatively low levels of agency (asylum migrants). This contribution draws upon two earlier qualitative research projects conducted by the authors in 2012 (labor migrants, family migrants, students) and in 2016 (asylum migrants). The first study (N=90) indicated that social media use makes migration decisions of labor migrants, family migrants and students better informed (Dekker & Engbersen, 2014, Dekker et al., 2016a, Dekker et al., 2016b). However, these groups already are characterized by relatively high levels of agency in deciding when, where and how to move. A follow up study (N=54) during the recent European refugee crisis demonstrated that smartphones and social media are commonly used by refugees on their journeys to Europe as well. Because of the highly risky journeys, we found that refugees have specific challenges in accessing social media and dealing with ‘rumours’ (cf. Carling & Hernández-Carretero, 2011). Furthermore, this contribution reflects on new ways in which social media do not only enhance agency but also bring new structuring elements to migration decision-making. Specifically, we address the use of social media by migrant networks and organizations, NGO’s and humanitarian organizations, migrants smugglers and government organizations – as discussed by the migrants we interviewed. These structuring elements can be migration-encouraging as well as migration-discouraging (cf. Dekker et al., 2016b). 

3.     Dr. Simon Goebel, Postdoc Candidate, Centre for Flight and Migration, KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

Migration-related communication processes of political players in digital media

As many studies consistently confirmed over the last decades, flight was and is a controversial topic in media. Typical mass media like print journalism, radio, and TV, often depict refugees and migrants as a threat, a burden, and as a deviation from the “normal” in general. Those media at the same time get criticised from right-wing stakeholders for publishing alleged “fake news”. Obviously, social and cultural negotiations about migration are under way constantly. The “fake news”-preachers find their truths in digital media. However, research on the representations of flight in digital media is still at lack. One reason might be the quantity and the access of data bringing a high complexity on methodological approaches. Another might be the mixture and unclear interrelations between those who produce content (traditionally journalists) and those who receive content (traditionally media consumers). I’m working on a research project focusing on processes of opinion making in digital media related to migration topics. Against the background of my research project, I would like to discuss the ways, political players (such as parties or institutionalised movements) of each shade try to find, build and reconfigure digital communication channels for their migration-related agitation. What topics do they use and maybe neglect in digital public spaces – also compared to non-digital public spaces? How do network-based and interactive platforms influence their communication processes? A special focus will be the constructions of culture, ethnicity and race as I analysed media constructions of those categories in earlier projects, i.e. in political talk shows. 

4.     Dr. Nina Grønlykke Mollerup,Postdoc Candidate, University of Copenhagen, The Saxo Institute 

Dr. Marie Sandberg, Associate professor, University of Copenhagen, The Saxo Institute

Perilous navigation: The creation of trust and knowledge through irregularised migrants’ digital practices in/of the European border regime

Despite a digital ‘turn’ in migration research, there have been limited studies on migrants’ use of ICT for navigating during and after flight (e.g. Charmarkeh 2013; van Liempt & Zijlstra 2017). Most studies conceptualize ICT as add-ons to migrants’ everyday practice, rather than seeing ICT as co-constituting migration. ICT co-constitutes the very migration routes and the ways migrants enter border struggles, also far away from geographical borders; ICT becomes a lens and a tool for shared decision-making and navigation among migrants. Crucially, the ways in which migrants repurpose, rather than simply use these technologies, have received no attention. Hence there is a need for research that simultaneously examines how migrants use ICT and focuses on how their usage affects and repurpose journeys and digital platforms themselves. This paper investigates migrants’ digital practices in and of the European border regime based on ethnographic fieldwork with irregularised migrants and solidarity workers carried out in 2018-19 in the Danish-Swedish borderland. We explore how irregularised migrants establish trust and knowledge in dangerous and unstable circumstances during their journeys. During these perilous journeys, knowing and trusting are not only made difficult by the precarious situations of the migrants, but also by the continuously shifting circumstances of changes in reception policy, border closings, weather conditions and more. That is, the migrants navigate in at once social and natural environments that engage and move them as they navigate during flight; they are moving in a moving environment (Vigh 2009). Seeing ICT as co-constitutive of a moving environment opens up for an understanding of digital practices as paths to both life-saving knowledge and heightened uncertainty. 

5.     Dr. Costanza Di Francesco Maesa, Research Fellow, University of Torino

Digitisation of migration control and accountability. Algorithmic accountability or no accountability?

Over the past few years, after the recent terrorist attacks, a new emphasis has been placed on the necessity to build a “Security Union”. To this end, legislative measures aimed at preventing future potential threats to security have been adopted. In particular, the aim of preventing irregular immigrants from entering the European territory, coupled with the development of advanced technologies and the growing digitisation of the means used to monitor the movement of people, has led to the establishment of a multitude of large-scale European databases, where an extensive amount of personal data, including sensitive data such as biometric, are stored. Access to these databases has been granted to a large plethora of actors, whose mission, in some cases, is only indirectly related to the purpose for which personal data were included in the databases to which they have access. The alleged justification is that such a system is necessary not only for immigration control, but also for combating terrorism and other serious crimes. However, the delegation of immigration control-related responsibilities to private actors and EU agencies has not been accompanied by an adequate European legislation regulating the allocation of responsibilities of the actors involved. As a result, in case of violation of the rights of the people whose data are retained, it could be not possible to define who is accountable. It is in that context that this paper aims to assess whether mechanisms adequate to ensure the accountability of the actors managing the personal data collected in those databases, or a different form of “algorithmic accountability”, have been established at the European level. To this end, the paper first reviews the concept of accountability in the light of the new approach given to migration and security issues in the current digital era, and, then, examines whether mechanisms appropriate for ensuring such an accountability have been put in place at the EU level.

6.     Dr. Amira Paripurna, Researcher, Human Rights Law Studies (HRLS), Faculty of Law, Universitas Airlangga Surabaya, Masitoh Indriani (LLM), Lecturer, Human Rights Law Studies (HRLS), Faculty of Law, Universitas Airlangga Surabaya, Indonesia

Biometric Data Sharing in Addressing Irregular Migration and Security Issues within The Bali Process Framework for Indonesia and ASEAN State Members 

The Rohingya crisis poses a critical test for the ASEAN state members and its institutions, pointing up ASEAN’s lack of a political and legal framework to deal with issues related to refugees and migrants. This led members of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime to acknowledge the need for an urgent and collective response on such issues. The Bali Process is the regional forum for combating migrant smuggling and is well placed to discuss and develop regional cooperation policies on refugees and irregular migrations within the region (the member of Bali Process partially is the ASEAN state members). In particular, the Bali Process has led opportunity to develop the use of technology and biometrics data sharing in migration and border management. Bali Process provides a key area where Indonesia and ASEAN state members can contest and amend the norms and practices around the human rights of refugees and irregular migrations. This article traces and analyses the emergence of the use of technology and biometrics in Indonesian migration, border and security management.  This article finds the tension with stated Bali Process objectives in terms of rights and protections for refugees and migrants, as well as unresolved issues on data privacy protection.  This article also identifies that Indonesia’s security-driven policies and regional disagreements over humanitarian responsibility remain an ongoing tension within Bali Process states, and provides commentary on the implications of this for future Indonesian policy relating to the role of technology, security and regional cooperation on irregular migration. 

7.     Dr. Simon Noori, Senior Researcher, University of Zurich

Smartphones, transnational activism and via political in(ter)ventions in maritime borderzones

While most scholars concerned with the use of digital technologies at the EU external borders have focused on practices of control that draw on sophisticated surveillance technologies, in this paper I address migrants’ use of digital technologies itself, arguing that it has fundamen-tally transformed the ways in which maritime border crossings are actually accomplished. In 2015 and 2016, when every day thousands of migrants crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, smartphones, GPS devices and other mobile IT equipment played a pivotal role during their journeys. On the one hand, these devices enabled them to navigate the sea and to circumvent state control while crossing maritime borders. On the other hand, they allowed to get in touch with transnational support networks, which made use of geo-referenced data in order to intervene in situations of distress in real-time. Based on first-hand empirical insights into one of these networks, the WatchTheMed Alarm Phone, I demonstrate how migrants used smartphones to make emergency calls and to alert supporters via WhatsApp or Facebook, who in turn mapped and tracked the positions and movements of their boats, gave advice to the travelers and pressurized coastguards to perform rescue operations. At the same time, these activists were able to document cases of non-assistance or illegal pushbacks, thus providing new forms of evidence about the violation of migrants’ rights at sea. In my analysis, I draw on William Walters’ concept of viapolitics, which captures how the journeys, vehicles and routes of migration become means and sites of contestation in their own right. The concept allows me to show how the use of digital technologies forges new connections between migrants, activists and state actors alike and how it shapes the ways in which precarious migrants transgress the external borders of the EU. 

8.     Agathi Merdi, MSc Candidate, University of Twente

ICT Use by Refugees: The Role of Technology in Refugee Mobility

Europe is experiencing the second biggest influx of migrants since the second World War. It has been reported that refugees use digital devices and online media to assist them in their journey, using them for communication, for their survival and their safety. However, many times the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that they use, hides a dark side, that may even lead them to become victims of human trafficking and cybercrime. According to the literature review, fewer empirical studies have addressed the migration process along with the technology that is used by refugees. During the formulation of my thesis project, entitled “ICT Use by Refugees: The Role of Technology in Refugee Mobility” I am planning to conduct a survey by interviewing refugees in Greece to explore the topic, paint a board picture on how technology is used and how it could be used by policymakers. The main goal of the research is to collect the suitable information on the technology, and the digital devices that are used by refugees, before, during and after their journey. Moreover, the investigation will center around the main challenges that refugees face and the ways that ICT helps refugees to overcome all these challenges. 

9.     Parisa Diba (MA), Research Associate, Teesside University, UK

Prof. Dr. Georgios A. Antonopoulos, Teesside University, UK

Dr. Georgios Papanicolaou, Reader, Teesside University, UK

Digital routes of human smuggling: evidence from the UK

There are justified concerns but little empirical evidence about the implications of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the business of human smuggling, by both smugglers and migrants.  Our study aims to provide an empirical account of this phenomenon in the UK context, we carried out a virtual ethnography predominantly on social media (Facebook) and travel guide websites to investigate the online context of human smuggling. We also undertook a series of ‘offline’ in-depth interviews with strategic informers, including: law enforcement agents (LEAs); experts on cyber-crime and/or human smuggling/trafficking; and individuals with experience in facilitating clandestine migration to the UK. Our project was part of the wider research effort supported by the European Commission (Surf and Sound) and with the role of the Internet in human smuggling in the European Union. By bringing together and analysing data acquired in both online and offline contexts, we argue against the temptation to  treat ICT and its impact on the business human smuggling as a major development and new type of criminal threat, and equally against the tendency to decide on questions of vulnerability abstractly without regard to the migrants’ concrete situation. 

10.    Michele Francis Ferris-Dobles (MA), PhD Candidate, University of Illinois ; University of Costa Rica

Central American Migration: Using the Mobile Phone across National Borders

The Central American – United States (U.S) corridor is the largest and most concentrated migratory area in the world (Massey et al. 2003). In Central America, between 10 and 12 percent of the population has migrated towards the U.S (Sandoval, 2017). While crossing the Mexican territory, migrants face hazardous situations of extortion, torture, and kidnapping, as well as abuse and violence from the organized crime and the Mexican authorities (Feldmann et al. 2018). This situation of extreme danger and vulnerability has allowed mobile phones to become crucial tools for migrants to attain a sense of security. Carrying a mobile phone with access to the Internet has become a priority for migrants, they invest a significant amount of their limited budget to communicate with their family and acquaintances. Mobile phones also allow them to access information regarding shelters, routes, and locations as they transit unknown regions (Barros, 2017). By applying qualitative research methods and using a media archeological approach, I employ Durham Peters (2009) theory of infrastructuralism to investigate, which are the major infrastructural transitions that allow Central American migrants nowadays to use the same mobile phone plan and to have Internet coverage across multiple national borders throughout their journey? How have these shifts enabled, induced, and changed new ways and patterns of migration? I argue that these infrastructural shifts are not only evolving traditional migratory patterns, but they are also creating a profitable business for a few private multinational telecommunication corporations that benefit from selling transnational mobile communication plans. This research concludes that at the same time that the global capital promotes a sense of closeness and a perception of a "borderless" world through the use of communication technologies, the nation-state borders are becoming more harsh, surveilled, and rigid for the migrants who are continually being harassed, persecuted, and detained. 

11.    Dr. Koen Leurs,Assistant Professor, Utrecht University

Jeffrey Patterson (MSc), Utrecht University

We Are Queer!: Young Gay Connected Migrants' Transnational Ties and Integration in the Netherlands.

Upon arrival to Europe, young migrants are found grappling with new language demands, cultural expectations, values, and beliefs that may differ from global youth culture and their country of origin. This process of coming-of-age while on-the-move is increasingly digitally mediated. Young migrants are “connected migrants”, using smartphones and social media to maintain bonding ties with their home country while establishing new bridging relationships with peers in their country of arrival (Diminescu, 2008). Drawing on the feminist perspective of intersectionality, socio-cultural categories like age, race, nationality, migration status, and gender and sexuality have an impact upon identification and subordination, thus we contend it is problematic to homogenize these experiences to all gay young adult migrants. The realities of settlement and integration starkly differ between those living on the margins of Europe – forced migrants including non-normative racialized gay men – and voluntary migrants – such as elite expatriates including wealthy, white and Western gay men. Drawing on 11 in-depth interviews conducted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with gay young adult forced and voluntary migrants, this paper aims to understand how sexual identification in tandem with bonding and bridging social capital diverge and converge between the two groups all while considering the interplay between online and offline entanglements of their worlds. 

12.     Basma Elmahdy (MA), Graduate of Mundus Journalism Program - Arabic-speaking Journalist - Researcher

Reflections on roles of the Arabic-language Newcomer Media in Berlin: ‘News is important to feel at home.’ 

Drawing on the main themes of the Digitized Global Mobilities conference, with focus on the second session: Media, Gender and Ethnicity, I would like to present my exploratory study on the conceived roles of the media produced by refugees and for refugee in Berlin in connection with the discourse of identity and integration in Germany, which reveals the role of theses media in challenging the controversial issues in the Arabic culture in regard to women liberation and Hijab (headcover), which are seen as obstacles to the integration.

My interdisciplinary study borrowed theoretical concepts of nationalism and Postcolonialism that its main research question is how do well theories of imagined community and third space explain the roles of the Arabic-speaking migrant media. To answer this question, I conducted a qualitative study, from February to June 2018, running 8 semi-structured interviews with media makers - half of them female interviewees- working for three immigrant media platforms: two magazines and one website. The main findings reveal that the respondents have imagined a collective cultural identity of their audience; moreover, they consider themselves part of the emerging community of refugees in Germany. Nevertheless, they are keen on challenging the so-called traditional Arabic identity in order to help their audience to adapt to the culture of the host country. In regard the latter function, they referred to the role of their media in breaking the taboos of Arab culture and reconsidering the gender roles. 

13.     Dr. Ilse van Liempt, Assistant Professor, Utrecht University

Younes Younes (MSc), Junior Researcher. Utrecht University - Co-founder and Director of Yalla Foundation

Prof. Dr. Richard Staring, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Social media and homemaking processes of recently arrived Syrians in the Netherlands

This article explores Syrian’s social media use during settlement in the Netherlands. Based on 50 in-depth interviews with a diverse group of Syrians who arrived since 2015 we found that there are different social media platforms that play various roles in the initial phase of settlement of Syrians. Apart from providing functional information related to formal participation trajectories social media platforms are also used for sharing more informal types of information. These online information exchanges cover a wide spectrum of daily issues related to participation in Dutch society that gives important insights in the type of information that is deemed important to share. Moreover, social media also plays an important role in the process of belonging in the Netherlands by connecting to family members and friends abroad and by making new connections in the host society through online communities. 

14.     Lucy Boddington, MSc Candidate, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford

Digital evidence and assessments of credibility within UK asylum tribunals

There is a relative paucity of academic literature focussing on the specific intersection of the role and dynamics of new technologies within asylum proceedings. I seek to address this gap by building on the work of legal scholar, Prof. Rosemary Byrne, to examine the use of digital evidence and assessments of credibility in the context of Immigration and Asylum Tribunals in the United Kingdom.  Whilst digital forms of evidence can potentially be used by applicants to build a stronger case for asylum, Byrne’s critical work has theorized a problematic ‘double bind’ dynamic created by the use of digital evidence in the asylum context: The perceived universality of digital technologies and new media creates a higher evidentiary threshold, whilst such forms of new media are simultaneously viewed, when provided in practice by applicants, as unreliable forms of evidence. This is compounded by a lack of formal reliability criteria, and a lack of trust in ‘new’ media. Thus, I seek to investigate whether there is evidence to support this theory in reported cases from the U.K. Upper Tribunal, further asking whether such dynamics create the potential to discredit applicants, either on the basis of their failure to provide, or, on the other hand, because of their provision of, digital evidence relevant to their asylum claim.Further, I seek to situate this within broader dynamics across time and space beyond the immediate Tribunal/Applicant. Wider implications will be explored, in relation to postcolonial perspectives regarding globalization, modernity and the digital divide, drawing on debates around the emancipatory capacities of new technologies, in addition to considering the concepts of mutability and temporality thus far developed primarily in relation to embodied/medical evidentiary forms. 

15.     Angelique van Dam, MPA Candidate, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Who Belongs Where? Research Around The Selection Process During The Placement Of Refugees By Screen-level Bureaucrats

Successful resettlement requires a safe place for refugees. Besides preferences of refugees of certain spaces and available facilities, municipalities are also interested in a successful match of refugees and space; so much that they prefer certain categories of refugees over others. Families and highly educated refugees are at the top of this hierarchy. This research focusses on the selection process and understandings of a ‘right fit’ of person and space during the matching of refugees and space within the Netherlands. Bureaucrats that are trusted with the task of selection and matching do this without getting into personal contact with the person that they decide for. They operate behind a screen basing their judgement on limited information. Therefore, we call them screen-level bureaucrats. Building on the work of Lipsky (1980) this study will show that screen- level bureaucrats use their policy discretion in almost all their cases. Moreover, it will show that stereotyping lies at the basis of the very elaborate stories about persons and places where screen-level bureaucrats rely their judgements on (e.g. ideas on where gay, families and high or low skilled newcomers belong). Through extended interviews (46) and observations (34) over a one-year period on a national, regional and local level (city of Rotterdam), this study sheds light on the practices of screen-level bureaucrats and the construction of belonging in the first phase of refugee resettlement in the Netherlands. This study emphasizes the complexity of interaction in digital space: even without physical contact, images are constructed that have consequences for the distribution of rights and facilities where social categorisation, stereotyping and principles of deservingness play a very important role. 

16.     Ilaria Aversa, MScCandidate, University of Essex

The effect of asylum seekers’ biometric data gathering and sharing, on refugees’ experiences. A human rights evaluation of ‘crimmigration’ policies and practices in a case study in Rome, Italy.

This research investigates how the implementation at the local level of both European regulations and domestic legislation affect the experiences of refugees. It highlights both positive outcomes of the practical implementation of migration legislation by local authorities, as well as problematic and potentially traumatic experiences resulting from those. It highlights contested domestic legislations such as the Salvini Security Decree (4th of October, 2018, n.113), which are argued to be in breach of international regulation (Campani, 2016), as well as the well documented and EU controversial practices of biometric data gathering and sharing (Brady, 2008; Dijstelbloem, Meijer and Brom, 2011). It uses data gathered through semi-structured interviews with refugees living in Rome to investigate refugees’ understanding of such practices, and the impact that these have on their attitudes towards the authorities. It also discusses the complex effect that this has on their decision-making in their everyday lives, including their choices and possibilities of movements within the city, the State and/or the EU. 

17.     Dr. Charles Martin-Shields (presenting author), Researcher; Mirko Eppler, Researcher;  Stella Gaetani, Researcher; Francy Koellner, Researcher;  Dr. Jana Kuhnt, Researcher; Nyat Mebrahtu, Researcher; Antonia Peters, Junior Researcher; Carlotta Preiß (MLitt), Researcher;  German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik

Between the Benefits of Connectivity and the Risks of Surveillance: urban refugees’ experiences of digital technologies in Kenya

Digitalization has been changing the way that governments and refugee protection organizations seek to identify, support and track forcibly displaced persons. What this paper seeks to do is explore the refugees’ experience, focusing on how refugees in Kenya see new technologies in their own lives. We specifically aim to answer questions about how refugees use digital technologies to navigate the social, economic and geographic aspects of their daily lives, balancing the benefits of connectivity with the risks of surveillance. Nairobi provides a unique context to explore questions of community solidarity, security, and economic access, since refugees living in Nairobi occupy a precarious position in the eyes of the Kenyan state. To understand these dynamics, we use a mixed method approach, gathering qualitative and quantitative data directly from displaced people. Working with local NGOs we are facilitating 30 semi-structured interviews about technology use and access with people who had experienced cross-border displacement and resettled in Nairobi. The qualitative research is supplemented with a 2,000-respondent survey of urban refugees on the same topic, which provides a large-N comparison to the in-depth qualitative data. We also interview experts from Kenyan NGOs and protection organizations in order to understand how the views of institutions about technology align with the views of refugees themselves. This data collection phase will be completed by mid-April 2019, and a working paper with initial results will be available by the end of April. This project will provide researchers and policy makers with rich descriptive data about how refugees use technology in their daily lives, highlighting where their experience of opportunities and risks in navigating an increasingly digital urban environment. 

 
18.     Dr. Giray Sadik, Associate Professor, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Ceren Kaya (MS), PhD Candidate,Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University
 
Securitization of Migration and the Role of Surveillance Technologies in European External Border Management
 
This study tries to assess the role of technologies of surveillance and control in the securitization of migration policies with reference to the EU’s border management instruments and the impact of this securitization on the rights of migrants and asylum seekers.  With the large-scale movement of people from the conflict-ridden areas to the European states and the growing concerns of the host countries about cross-border crime and terrorism, the means and ends of the migration and asylum policies have been integrated into the security policies of the Union. Restrictive and security-oriented policies of the Union have manifested itself in the new technological instruments, such as automated decision making, artificial intelligence, biometric data, facial recognition, iris scanning, and fingerprinting, which have been widely deployed at the external borders in order to identify and screen illegal arrivals to the European territory. While being efficient in curbing irregular flows and maintaining the security of external borders, these new technologies has caused securitization of migration and violated the basic rights of migrants such as international right of seeking asylum, right to life and privacy. This study uses the theoretical framework of the Paris School which pays attention to the practices and technological developments in the securitization process. In this regard, the EU’s information technology systems such as the Schengen Information System, Eurodac, the Visa Information System and the new border security technologies such as artificial intelligence-powered lie detectors are examined to illustrate securitizing practices of the Union. The study reaches a conclusion that without a proper impact assessment of the new technologies deployed at the border management, the EU may risk of violating its founding norms and principles besides the international obligations for human rights, by securitizing its migration policies. 

19.     Lene Swetzer (MA), Junior lecturer, Utrecht University

See through me: Securitising transgender identity through biometric authentication

In the age of biometric surveillance, the assumption prevails that (bodily) identity verification increases security (e.g. Currha & Mulqueen, 2011). This engages airport security in practices of “identity management” (ibid.), sorting out which person or population poses a risk (Lyon 2003: 1). This has led to what Rose (1999) coined the “securitisation of identity”. Therein biology and the body have become the primary sources of information and identification (Aas 2006: 144). However, certain identity markers, such as gender, challenge these assumptions and practices (Currha & Mulqueen, 2011). This is particularly apparent with gender-fluid groups, such as transgender identities (ibid.). As a result, transgender people are exposed during body scans and, as a research in the Netherlands in 2017 showed they become vulnerable to discrimination (COC, 2017). While technology is claimed to be neutral, it is in fact deeply political (e.g. Introna & Wood, 2004), as its very design is based on negotiations between different actors, interests and values (Valkenburg & van der Ploeg, 2015). Taking a queer criminological approach, this theoretical paper will explore existing gender politics inherent in biometric authentication by looking at the implications the use of full body scans for transgender travelers.

20.     Dr. Vasiliki Makrygianni, Researcher, IT University of Copenhagen

Dr. Vasilis Galis, Associate Professor,IT University of Copenhagen

Migrants’ digital practices for gender and LGBTQ+ solidarity: narratives from Greece

Migrants’ entanglements with ICTs reveals a wide spectrum of spaces and resistance practices that extend from the human body to transnational borderlands (Gillespie et al 2016).  In this paper, we investigate how ICTs at the disposal of migrants not only question the very idea of citizenship and (il)legality (Galis & Summerton 2018) but also disturb dominant gender and sexuality norms and act as a shield from patriarchal and sexist practices. Following an intersectional approach, (Bürkner 2012, Crenshaw 1989, Yuval-Davis 2006) moving populations are not a homogenous group, but are differentiated by class gender, sexuality, age, body-ability and so many other characteristics and relations. Sexuality has been a terrain for creating and maintaining racialized, gendered, economic and geopolitical discriminations (Manalansan 2006, Palmary 2016). In migrants’ case, gender relations and sexual orientation is a battleground not only for those on route trying to abolish borders of every kind but also for those settled in national territories. After crossing demarcated borderlines, moving populations continue to be governed and disciplined, while trying to access economic, health and welfare systems. Based on an ongoing research we have been conducting since 2016 in the Greek territory, we highlight the ways social media, smartphones with multiple apps and other digital technologies subvert dominant practices on gender relations and sexuality and enact patterns of use in terms of navigation, information, contact, care and solidarity among others. In this respect, we investigate different aspects of migrants’ journey in order to trace self-organized, antisexist, and solidarity practices amongst members of LGBTQ+ communities and discuss their characteristics, their limits and potentialities. Sources of empirical material such as interviews with people on the move or settled in Greece and migrants’ narrations are used in order to broaden the understanding of gender and sexuality discourse on migration and of bordering practices posed from normative practices. In this respect, we explore the ways gender and sexuality is entangled with ICT and migration practices, and how are existing digital platforms reconfiguring spaces of sexism and solidarity networks for the LGBTQ+ communities. Moreover, we address the potentials of ICTs for non-heteronormative subjectivities and the ways they challenge (or fail to challenge) borders of sexism and patriarchy. All in all, we aim to show how gender and sexuality matters not only for critically addressing and abolishing bordering practices but also for highlighting terrains of solidarity and encounter. 

21.     Georgia (Zeta) Lazarou (MA), Independent Researcher, Restorative Justice and Mediation Lab in Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences

Social media and refugee smuggling in Greece; ethical impossibilities and research limitations

The rise of new technologies and the extensive use of social media have severely altered the ways in which social mobility is perceived. The invasion of multiple new media in the traditional human contact and exchange has opened paths for refugees and smugglers alike to connect and communicate in a fast, safe and efficient way. People on the move throughout Europe make use of social media in and in between countries of transit, while crossing EU borders and in some cases in order to communicate with smugglers. During my research on hate crimes against Lgbtqi+ refugees, that was based in Athens in 2017-2018, it became prevalent that digitally mediated environments acted as the basis surrounding all activities of the community, legal and illegal. The ways in which the specific minority group made use of social media and various online platforms could be interpreted as a form of civil disobedience to social and legal oppression, experienced in Greece. Many Lgbtqi+ refugee cases have evolved into obscure disappearances from the country and reappearances to another European state. In most of these examples, social media played a huge role in this digital and physical flow of populace.
The usage of online media in order to search for and collaborate with human smugglers has led to the digitization of refugee mobility throughout Europe. The efficiency and speed of the digital locales, challenges further the research objectives of the present academia and acts as a reminder of the constant need of reshaping our methodological and theoretical approaches to issues such as security, traceability and human mobility in the present context. It is crucial to comprehend the new phenomena arising from this digitization of refugee population in Europe in order to be able to efficiently conduct researches. Both smugglers and refugees have found new, digitized paths of communication that manage to go undetected. At the same time, it is essential to reform our research interest on the gendered and sexual dimensions of new media use. The security and mobility of refugees can be influenced heavily by social media and various websites. As it can be seen in the recent example in Diavata, Greece where hundreds of refugees gathered in a makeshift camp near the Northern Macedonian border after a false rumor in their social media that the Balkan countries had opened their borders (Bellamy, 2019). Greek media described as "fake news" the Facebook story about plans for an organised crossing of the North Macedonia border (While Greek police clash with migrants after 'fake news' border movement, 2019). Incidents like these highlight the complexity and vastness of user-generated context spreading in the web, posing as valid news and eventually motivating hundreds of people into social disorder and civil unrest. 

22.     Julia Söhnholz, MA Candidate, European Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations, Erasmus Mundus Programme

Women on the Move’s Access and Use of Smartphones on the Balkan Route

Despite the importance of smartphones for people on the move, existing research and literature is very limited and does not differentiate much between gender. The research presented in this paper explores women’s use of smartphones as means through which women can (re-) shape their autonomy at the hand of the following research question: How do smartphones influence women on the move’s autonomy on the Balkan route? The theoretical framework is based on the concept of autonomy of migration as “migrants’ and refugees’ struggles to realize their heterogeneous migratory projects by exercising their elementary freedom of movement” (De Genova, 2017, p.17). This paper draws upon secondary data analysis as a research method. The results indicate that women on the move have less access to smartphones and use them differently than men and point out the importance of improving women on the move’s access to (digital) information and services and the content of the latter in order to enhance empowerment and moments of autonomy. However, existing research is still too limited to draw useful conclusions without generalizing women on the move’s experiences. Rather than presenting results, this paper hopes to promote future research to expand upon the topic, preferably participatory research that allows the voices of women on the move to be heard. 

23.      Dr. Amanda Paz Alencar, Assistant Professor, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Dr. Koen Leurs, Assistant Professor, Utrecht University, Ghadeer Udwan (MSc),Research Assistant, Utrecht University 

Online/offline resilience strategies of young Syrian refugees in the Netherlands 

Drawing on in-depth interviews, this paper offers insights on how young Syrian refugees in the Netherlands negotiate stressful experiences and demands through offline and online means. In their daily lives, people are exposed to many pressures. Stress is a normal response to the psychological and emotional challenges. However, dealing with stress in extraordinary situations may be more difficult. Many Syrian refugees have experienced extraordinary stressors including threats of security, family safety, violence, destruction, loss of their homes or loved ones, and having to leave their home. In addition, extreme stressors include their dangerous journeys, as well as many obstacles faced during resettlement. We focus on how Syrian refugees negotiate the challenges they face as they stake out their new life in European and Dutch society. Loneliness, being far away from family or loved people, struggling with the language and new traditions, boredom, lack of privacy and familiar routines, fears about a mysterious future all add up to feelings of anxiety. Even such exceptional circumstances can be emotionally overcome, this is called resilience. From this perspective, stress reactions are no longer seen as a sign of weakness or vulnerability but as a human reaction when confronted to extreme situations, violence and suffering. With the right support - including education, health care, protection and recognition, young refugees have been documented to overcome such challenges and thrive (UNICEF, 2018). If we consider their situation from this perspective, the image of young refugees changes from that of “victim” to one of competent, strong and resilient young people. In our paper, we chart 1); what challenges young refugees experience; 2); which useful strategies young refugees have developed  to overcome stress; 3) how previous stress coping mechanisms impact upon their current resilience; 4) .how are social networks mobilized for social, practical and emotional support; 5). to what extent social media grows resilience or increases stress; and 6) how do changing gender roles and expectations impact on resilience strategies? 

24.     Dr. Sanja Milivojevic (LLM), Senior Lecturer,La Trobe, Melbourne

Rethinking ‘Stealing the fire, 2.0 style’: Furthering our engagement with counter-security technologies in 21st century

Policing global mobility within informated space and the use of technology in mobility control have been subjects of academic inquiry for quite some time. Scholars mostly ventured into this area of academic inquiry to document the use of technology to observe and control mobile populations. Rarely did academic attention focus on the use of chronology as a site of resistance and/or social change (Newell et al. 2016; for notable exceptions see Gillespie et al. 2016; Rovisco 2015). In this presentation I would like to revisit and further some key premises from my paper published in Theoretical Criminology in 2018 (Milivojevic   2018). In the paper, I investigated how the ‘digital’ transforms borders from below and how technology can serve as not only mobility enabler, but also a tool for de-securitization and re-humanization of illegalised noncitizens. I argued that border crossers reclaim technology and in so doing successfully secure safe passage, record abusive bordering practices, and create counter-narratives of migration by challenging an account of a ‘dangerous migrant’ (effectively deploying what I call ‘counter-security technologies’). In the context of irregular migration, I contend, this process largely occurs on existing technological platforms, such as social media and smartphone technology. In this presentation, however, I would like to test some of these premises, but also further my analysis on the role technology can and should play in desecuritization of migration. I will focus on the upcoming technology for ‘the good’ (for example, virtual and augmented reality, apps developed by border crossers themselves and the Internet of Things). The presentation will also reflect on the role of research and why we need to focus on counter-security technologies in the Global North, but also the Global South.

26.     Liam Turner-Murrell (MA), Utrecht University

The Digital Evolution of Radical Right Movements

In 2016, a radical right group were proscribed to the terrorist organisation list in the UK for the first time. National Action, a neo-Nazi groupuscule were deemed as a threat to society. The bestowing of such legislation upon NA could be interpreted as a symbolic statement; indicating a shift in the perception of the radical right as a growing threat to public safety. Since the implementation of this legislation NA have adapted their activity and fragmented into array of groups entrenched into the deeper corners of the online world. The changes in this particular nationalist movement highlight how interaction between the digital realm, nationalist movements and securitization by the state can have unanticipated outcomes. In contemporary times states are increasingly struggling with the online activity of such groups. Therefore, an analysis of such online activities is crucial in understanding the evolution of nationalist movements in the modern cyber sphere. This paper will explore the transition of NA into System Resistance Network, as this recent phenomenon shows the flexibility, innovative nature and digital understanding of current nationalist movements. By doing so, this exploration focuses on the reverberations of the interplay between the enforcement of state legislation and the reactionary acclimatisation of NA within the digital domain. 

28.     Qian Huang (MA), PhD Candidate, Erasmus University Rotterdam

The Nationalist People’s Court: Chinese Vigilant Patriots on Social Media

In recent years there have been several incidents of citizen journalism demonstrating nationalism in China, where citizens identify and expose an individual’s ‘unpatriotic’ conduct or speech and call for shaming and/or other forms of punishment. This paper will examine the dynamic among various actors and stakeholders in such incidents to provide a nuanced understanding of Chinese online participation. Posts, comments, and replies on relevant social media platforms and news reports of four selected cases are collected and analyzed. The chosen cases represent two types of targets and corresponding developments: civilian targets’ private personal information is made public so that they can be punished by unwanted online visibility, while celebrity targets’ ‘unpatriotic’ conducts are made visible so that they can be punished by unwanted invisibility due to official bans or grassroots boycotts. Often, expats from mainland China such as overseas students, or expats who come to mainland China such as Hong Kong, Taiwan or foreign celebrities, fall as targets of the patriotic vigilantes. Being publicly named and shamed online in China can result in long-term and unwanted visibility or invisibility accompanied by institutional punishment, such as reprimands from the government, revocation of one’s academic degree, or an official ban of entry into the mainland entertainment industry. The strategies adopted by Chinese patriotic netizens demonstrate their collective identity, their support to the state’s narrative and collaboration with the state institutions.