MIGRATION SURVEILLANCE RESEARCH PROJECT
What We’re Doing
Digital technology, in particular smartphones and tablet devices, are essential social and geographic navigational tools in contemporary Latin American migration. Yet they are also tools that are highly vulnerable to digital surveillance, around which there is a large and lucrative industry of predictive border surveillance and enforcement. They are also vulnerable to other forms of surveillance, such as by individuals and groups that may be persecuting them. To address these problems, Localization Lab is currently leading research that focuses on documenting the ways that people on the move are impacted by these systems and on creating a space for affected communities to speak about their experiences and to develop solutions and recommendations.
What We’ve Done
In fall 2023, Localization Lab in partnership with regional experts on migration and digital security conducted four weeks of fieldwork in Honduras and Mexico to document digital security risks and the impacts of surveillance and border externalization on migrants and asylum seekers, as well as the networks of people and organizations serving them.
The research found that people on the move in Honduras and Mexico (Tapachula and Mexico City) used their phones to learn about the journey, stay connected to family, and to seek shelter, food, and aid. The research also found that individuals on the move faced serious threats that spanned digital and physical spaces and that imperiled their lives.
These threats stem from profit-driven violence that characterizes every stage of their journeys. Consequently, these threats also present serious risks to the safety and wellbeing of humanitarian aid workers, migrant defenders, and NGO organizations. The current findings show that people on the move navigate such risks by prioritizing relationships that are based on mutual aid that oppose profit-driven violence. The findings suggest that focusing on information security as a type of collective care may offer productive avenues for promoting digital security in highly vulnerable communities.
What We’re Doing Next
We are about to start part two of this research project conducting interviews and participant observation in Guatemala as well as in southern and northern Mexico. Our findings will be published in a report that both uplifts the experiences of people on the move and includes solutions and recommendations developed by people on the move and most affected by practices of migration surveillance.
INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT OUR WORK IN DIGITAL RIGHTS? REACH OUT TO US AT INFO@LOCALIZATIONLAB.ORG OR FOLLOW US ON X @ L10NLAB TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION.