Goals
1. Coalition building. Given the complexity of the issues raised by the adoption of automated systems for people on the move, we believe that we can best tackle the challenges collaboratively, rather than competing with existing research and advocacy efforts.
We therefore joined the ProtectNotSurveil coalition, reached out to civil society organizations, academics, and journalists at work in this field, and organized a workshop on Rethinking Tech in Migration, to help fill the gaps together — both through concrete policy measures and ideological critiques of the current status quo.
2. Evidence building. Automated systems adopted for border surveillance and the management of human mobility are structurally opaque, and therefore much is left in the dark about how they are researched, developed and ultimately deployed. Automation on the Move aims to challenge that, with a specific focus on understanding the actual outputs and vision behinds EU-funded research and innovation projects involving automated technologies in migration.
3. In-depth analysis. Starting from the newly collected evidence, Automation on the Move goes in-depth into the specifics of systems that are yet to be fully understood or problematized, the roots of the main trends we observe and the most important issues these sociotechnical systems currently raise for people on the move. We aim for maximum detail in the analyses we produce — and for maximum collaboration.
4. Policy recommendations. Automation on the Move provides policy recommendations for the use of AI and ADM in migration, based on the evidence gathered and in-depth analyses of the main trends emerging in the field.
Methods
In order to achieve those goals, the project adopts a mixture of investigative journalism, desk research, in-depth analysis of the available literature and use cases, and network building.
Project manager Fabio Chiusi leads these efforts, which are meant to be collaborative and coordinated with partner organizations whenever needed and possible.
The project is funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung.
During Automation on the Move, we investigated EU-funded research and innovation projects in border security that involve the use of automated systems and artificial intelligence, studied the history and ideology behind the use of these technologies, and worked with international experts to obtain much needed change in how we conceive of and deploy automation and AI to control human mobility.
We embarked on an impossible quest for transparency in EU-funded research projects in border security. Predictably, we failed. These six stories detail how, and why the obstacles we found embody an untenable status quo that is fundamentally based on systemic opacity.