Digitization Without Digital Evidence: Technology and Sweden’s Asylum System

Abstract

States and asylum seekers are at the centre of rapid digital innovation in surveillance, mobility, welfare and identity. Why do some states rush to digitalize asylum systems, while others do not? Why is the pace and form of digitalization within countries uneven within asylum agencies? In this article, we examine drivers of the digitalization of the Swedish state, in particular uneven digitalization within the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket). While many processes were swiftly digitalized, we found that Swedish bureaucrats, rather than politicians or activist lawyers, resisted the adoption of digital evidence within the refugee status determination process, despite enthusiastically digitizing elsewhere. We explore these differences by looking at the historical, institutional and cultural bases of Swedish refugee policy. We present evidence from fieldwork in Sweden and find an unequal pace of digitalization that was largely dependent on the bureaucratic risk-aversion, extant legal norms, and perceived vulnerability to fraud.

Digital Evidence in Refugee Status Determination

“…21 Whilst some states have proven reluctant to use digital evidence in RSD in light of its inherent risks to applicants' privacy, the EU more generally envisions sharing of biometric and other types of digital personal information as part of its interoperability strategy. 22 Scholars have rightly warned that such practices raise significant human rights concerns, not least due to their potential to impinge rights of privacy. German courts have recently ruled that the state practice of mobile phone data analysis unlawful because it did not meet requirements of necessity.…”

Big Tech to the Rescue? An Ethnographic Study of Corporate Humanitarianism in the Refugee Crisis

“…The paper contributes to scholarly debates about the digitalization of refugee governance and aid, and the marketization of humanitarianism more broadly, to which this journal has significantly contributed. Across a wide range of disciplines, scholars have documented the growing role of digital technology and private sector actors in the humanitarian field, focusing for example on the development of digital tools to address refugee mental health (Goodman et al, 2021), refugees' use of smartphones (M. including their practices around data privacy (Witteborn, 2021), and the digitalization of asylum systems (Josipovic, 2023;McNamara & Tikka, 2023;Micinski & Jones, 2022). Within this broad literature, much attention has been paid to the development and use of blockchain and biometric technologies for identification and tracking purposes (Ajana, 2013;.…”