Bordering processes through the use of technology: the Turkish case

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since becoming the largest refugee-hosting country in the world following the outbreak of war in Syria in 2011, Turkey’s border policy has been increasingly characterised by the use of sophisticated security technologies. Turkey’s south-eastern border with Syria has been continuously upgraded with walls and fences incorporating advanced security technology. The border with Greece has witnessed a similar bordering process particularly under pressure from the European Union. Drawing on critical border studies and adopting a Foucauldian lens, this article explores these bordering processes, taking security technology as a heterogonous ensemble of practices that consists of discourses, regulations, institutions, threat perceptions, scientific knowledge etc. Finally, the article comes to two important conclusions. First, it suggests that the detection, filtering and prevention of ‘illegal’ border crossings, smuggling and terrorism are the key reasons advanced for the adoption of technologically intensive border control practices. On the other hand, a more ‘humanitarian discourse’, namely ‘saving the lives of migrants’ is also at play. Second, these security technologies are now increasingly embodied in practices of ‘inclusion’/‘exclusion’ that distinguish ‘risky’ (i.e. illegitimate) from ‘safe’ (i.e. legitimate) mobilities and that create spaces where inequality and injustice are experienced.