Abstract
It is the core and intended function of borders to discriminate. Descriptively, their purpose is to differentiate or distinguish among different categories of persons, sorting those who may enter and belong from those who may not. But it is also a core function of modern borders to discriminate in the normatively prejudicial sense—they allocate fundamental human rights differentially on the basis of race, gender, class, national origin, sexual orientation, and disability status, among others. In this essay, I briefly sketch what I have described elsewhere as the contemporary system of racial borders: border regimes that variously allocate and curtail mobility and migration on a racial basis, largely relying upon facially race neutral mechanisms. Second, I reflect on the increasing prevalence of digital technologies in border regimes and their enforcement, with an emphasis on their racial implications, drawing from my recent report to the UN General Assembly on racial discrimination in digital border enforcement. The contribution of this essay is thus to reflect on the co-constituting and mutually reinforcing effects of racial borders and digital borders, which require specific attention together as digital racial borders.
Highlights
It is the core and intended function of borders to discriminate
With virtually no legal pathways to migration or safe passage to access the European Union, African migrants and refugees, alongside Syrians, Afghans, and others, face the deadly border regime of the Union, or what Nicholas De Genova has aptly described as “Europe’s racial borders.”[6]. The borders of the United States—a country that is at once a settler colonial project and imperial hegemon— exclude and include on a racial basis, as U.S immigration and critical race scholars have widely detailed.[7]
My UN reports on race and technology have sought to map a structural and intersectional international human rights-based approach to fighting racial subordination achieved through technological means.[30]
Summary
It is the core and intended function of borders to discriminate. Their purpose is to differentiate or distinguish among different categories of persons, sorting those who may enter and belong from those who may not. It is a core function of modern borders to discriminate in the normatively prejudicial sense—they allocate fundamental human rights differentially on the basis of race, gender, class, national origin, sexual orientation, and disability status, among others. The contribution of this essay is to reflect on the co-constituting and mutually reinforcing effects of racial borders and digital borders, which require specific attention together as digital racial borders
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