Below are some of our events, resources, and projects.
MTM is a monitor, archive, and platform for critical interrogation of migration and technology. Our growing archive consists of reports, panel discussions, and information on the effects of migration technologies and policies on people crossing borders. Our team is constantly on the ground at international border sites so check back for updated resources!
Are you a migrant justice organizer or a person-on-the-move worried about increasing state and private surveillance? Are you concerned you may be a target for deportation or spyware?
Following up on our Town Hall in December 2024, we are beginning to put together a list of resources.
Would you like to be added to a secure and vetted Signal group? Please email admin@migrationtechmonitor.com
The Border Chronicle
Want in-depth and independent journalism from the ground up? The Border Chronicle has for years been a leading voice on the ways that the border industrial complex affects us all.
Here are more of our featured resources and projects:
Long Road Magazine
Incubated at the Refugee Law Lab and launched in November 2022, Long Road Magazine is an online and print publication and journalism collective that features longform reportage about borders and borderlands around the world.
Office of the Human Rights Commissioner - Report on Digital Border Governance
In 2023, the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner partnered with the Refugee Law Lab and the University of Essex on a report calling for a human rights based approach to digital border governance.
UN Special Rapporteur on Discrimination - Report on Race, Tech, and Borders.
In early November 2020, E. Tendayi Achiume, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance presented a report at the UN General Assembly on racial and xenophobic discrimination, emerging digital technologies, and border and immigration enforcement.
This report follows an earlier thematic report on racial discrimination and emerging digital technologies.
Technological Testing Grounds.
As a companion piece to the UN Special Rapporteur’s report on racism, technology, and borders, the Refugee Law Lab and EDRi (European Digital Rights) published a report based on over 40 interviews with refugees and people on the move, exploring the systemic factors that create migration management experiments at and around the border.
Europe’s Act to Regulate Artificial Intelligence
As the European Union debates how to regulate Artifical Intelligence, 192 organisations & individuals call on EU policymakers to protect the rights of people on the move in the AI Act. Learn more about the Protect Not Surveil Campaign!
Report on the UK’s privatized Migration Surveillance Regime.
The ability to police and ‘control’ the UK’s borders was a central issue for voters in the UK Brexit vote, and is once again headline news with coverage focusing on migration across the Channel. In a panel discussion, Privacy International (PI) outlined the result of their research into how UK authorities track and monitor immigrants and the companies which profit. The report aims to provide an overview for UK civil society organizations and uses procurement, contractual, and other open source data to outline the systems and techniques used by authorities across the UK’s borders, immigration, and citizenship system.
Watch our discussion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U1ioo6A_yE&ab_channel=PrivacyInternational
Speakers
Edin Omanovic - Advocacy Director, Privacy International
Mary Atkinson - Campaign Officer, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
Petra Molnar - Coordinator, Migration and Technology Monitor
Moderated by Daniel Howden - Managing Editor, Lighthouse Reports
Migration & Technology Monitor Launch
Technology is increasingly being used at the border: From drones to Big Data to algorithms, countries are turning to novel techniques to ‘manage’ migration. However, often these technological experiments do not consider the profound human rights ramifications and real impacts on human lives.
On November 10, 2020 we officially launched the Monitor in direct response to these issues.
Co-hosted with Privacy International, we held a conversation which included perspectives from the UN Special Rapporteur on Discrimination E. Tendayi Achiume; Antonella Napolitano (Privacy International); Kenya-Jade Pinto (Filmmaker and Photographer); Konstantinos Kakavoulis (Homo Digitalis); the discussion was moderated by Petra Molnar (Refugee Law Lab).
Here are other useful reports:
A clear and present danger: Missing safeguards on migration and asylum in the EU’s AI Act: A Report by Statewatch
DEADLY DIGITAL BORDER WALL: A report by MIJENTE, Just Futures Law, and `no Border Wall Coalition
Border Wars: A Project by TNI (The Transnational Institute)
Ending Fortress Europe Recommendations for a racial justice approach to EU migration policy: A Report by Equinox
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY, POLICING AND MIGRATION – WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS? A Breifing paper by PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants)
Border Management and Human Rights: A Report by OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe)
News and Op-Eds
The Fight Over Which Uses of AI Europe Should Outlaw: Khari Johnson (The Wired)
Fortress Europe: the millions spent on military-grade tech to deter refugees: Kaamil Ahmed and Lorenzo Tondo (The Guardian)
Technology is the new border enforcer, and it discriminates: E Tendayi Achiume, Sarah Chander, and Petra Molnar (Al Jazeera)
Surveillance Won’t Stop the Coronavirus: Petra Molnar (New York Times)
