Smart and secure borders through automated border control systems in the EU? The views of political stakeholders in the Member States

Abstract

The European Commission launched the "Smart Borders" policy process in 2011 to enhance border security in the European Union (EU) using technologisation and harmonisation. This includes the use of automated border control (ABC) systems. The Member States crucially shape the process, weighing security technologies and costs, privacy and rights, and further institutional choices. We examine the views of political stakeholders in four Member States by conducting a systematic empirical and comparative study unprecedented in the existing, political-theory-inspired research. In our Q methodological experiments, political stakeholders in Finland, Romania, Spain and the UK rank-ordered a sample of statements on Smart Borders, ABC and harmonisation. The factor analysis of the results yielded three main views: the first criticising ABC as a security technology, the second welcoming the security gains of automation and the third opposing harmonised border control. While impeding harmonisation, the results offer a consensus facilitating common policy. ARTICLE HISTORY

Bak den norske overvåkingsdebatten

“…Vi mener fordelingen i kjønn og alder i utvalget speiler den kjønns-og aldersfordelingen vi finner i den aktuelle gruppen. Selv om det ikke har vaert utført Q-metodologiske studier av overvåkingsdebatten, viser for eksempel en studie av debatten knyttet til automatisert grensekontroll i Schengen hvilket potensiale Q-metodologi har til å få frem interessenters felles utgangspunkt og uenigheter (Lehtonen & Aalto, 2017). For en kort beskrivelse av Q-metodologi, se dokumentasjonsnotatet (Flinterud og Strype, 2020).…”

Biobordering as a Concept

“…Trends towards the virtualization and digitization of measures for transnational police collaboration in the context of migration and crime control have shifted formal border policy agendas and actual polities. Under the labels of 'smart borders' (Lehtonen & Aalto, 2017;Leese, 2016), 'iborders' (Pötzsch, 2015) and 'virtual borders' (Johnson et al, 2011), these trends have been addressed in policy discourse and extensively reflected in border studies (Amoore, 2006).…”

Fluorescence lifetime assisted enhanced security feature in travel documents for border control and security applications

“…In recent years, border security challenges and immigration issues are increasing considerably, owing to the higher traveler volume, terrorism threats and number of international crimes reported [1]. Counterfeiting and fraudulent use of different identity and travel documents, such as passports [2][3], are posing serious threats and safety concerns worldwide. Although numerous technological developments have emerged for enhancing the security features, such as e-passports [4][5] and biometrics [6][7], the fraudsters still use different counterfeiting techniques such as cloning, alteration, tampering and misusing of genuine documents, for creating fake documents [8][9][10].…”