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Biometric capture: disrupting the digital codification of black migrants in the UK

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 07:47 authored by Irene Fubara-ManuelIrene Fubara-Manuel
The current system of the surveillance of migrants relies on biometric capture. To be captured is to be codified into machine-readable representations. This paper merges technological codifications with political discourse to explore the disproportionate capturing of black migrants in the UK. Using the historical treatment of Nigerian migrants in the UK as an illustration, this paper interrogates how contemporary technologies are used to codify and confine black migrants. This paper explores works from digital artists – Keith Piper and Joy Buolamwini – to address this codification of blackness using biometric technology. It calls for new technological cultures of coding that centre the disruption of violent systems of capture. Failure is defined as this disruption of hegemonic systems of codification and capture that aim to subjugate black communities. This paper stresses that it is only when technologies of capture fail that black and migrant communities can truly experience digital freedom.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

African Diaspora

ISSN

1872-5457

Publisher

Brill Academic Publishers

Issue

1-2

Volume

12

Page range

117-141

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2020-08-25

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-08-27

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2020-08-27

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