In the “Service” of Migrants: The Temporary Resident Biometrics Project and the Economization of Migrant Labor in Canada

Abstract

Since 1993, the Canadian government has used biometric screening to identify migrants crossing in and out of Canadian territory. Recently, however, the government has sought to enhance the scope of biometric screening through a number of proposed acts and programs. Of particular interest is the 2013 Temporary Resident Biometrics Project. The Project will require that foreign nationals provide enhanced biometric details, including fingerprints and facial capture, which will be shared with other governmental departments such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada Border Services Agency. Although the Canadian government has made reference to increasing vulnerabilities in their capacities of identification and verification, it is unclear exactly why the enhanced surveillance and governance of noncitizens is necessary. We argue that the increasing deployment of biometrics is part of a larger global program designed to promote and manage temporary, short-term labor. We explore this use of biometrics by contextualizing the arguments advanced by the Temporary Resident Biometrics Project within the larger neoliberal discourse of market uncertainty and risk management. The working theory draws from Callon's thesis of hybrid forums to investigate the economization of biometric screening and, in turn, how the state's relationship and obligations to noncitizens are increasingly defined through the rhetoric of a market-driven economized service. A brief overview of the Canada–U.S. NEXUS program serves to demonstrate the Project's relevance to understanding how surveillance is being used to manage global flows of labor.