Technological Testing Grounds: Migration Management Experiments and Reflections from the Ground Up

States are increasingly turning to novel techniques to ‘manage’ migration. Across the globe, an unprecedented number of people are on the move due to conflict, instability, environmental factors, and economic reasons. As a response to increased migration into the European Union over the last few years, many states and international organizations involved in migration management are exploring technological experiments in various domains such as border enforcement, decision-making, and data mining. These experiments range from Big Data predictions about population movements in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas to automated decision-making in immigration applications to Artificial Intelligence (AI) lie detectors and risk-scoring at European borders. These innovations are often justified under the guise of needing new tools to ‘manage’ migration in novel ways. However, often these technological experiments do not consider the profound human rights ramifications and real impacts on human lives.

This report first presents recommendations for policy makers, governments, and the private sector on the use of migration management technologies, foregrounding the need to focus on the harmful impacts of these interventions and abolish the use of high risk applications. We then provide a brief snapshot of the ecosystem of migration management technologies, highlighting various uses before, at, and beyond the border and analysing their impacts on people’s fundamental human rights. The report concludes with reflections on why and how states are able to justify these problematic uses of technologies, exacerbating and creating new barriers to access to justice through the allure of technosolutionism, the criminalization of migration, and border externalization—all occuring in an environment of dangerous narratives stoking anti-migrant sentiments. Technology replicates power relations in society that render certain communities as testing grounds for innovation. These experiments have very real impacts on people’s rights and lives.