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Governing Race for the Future: A.I. Policing of Migrant Youth

Author(s): Max Waleij

Wednesday 14  |   15:40-16:00

Room: TP43

Session: Behind the scenes of digital public services

The Swedish government recently delegated the task of facilitating the implementation of A.I. in public management. The Agency for Digital Government estimates this could save around 140 billion Swedish crowns per year (DIGG, 2023). Regardless of this estimate being accurate, it speaks volumes of the vision of, and faith put in, A.I. by government officials and influential practitioners in the field. Meanwhile, borders are becoming increasingly digitized, backed by enormous investment (M’charek, Schramm & Skinner, 2014). Facial recognition and other biometric technologies, and drone surveillance of “no-go zones”, are but a couple examples of technologies utilized in both migration and crime management, with the distinction between them getting increasingly blurred. Migrant youth have become a topic of various debates in relation to these technologies. “Gang activity”, trafficking, or identity fraud, for instance, are some of the areas where A.I. is either already implemented or planned to be by various governmental agencies. While the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been implemented in Swedish Law, simultaneously, migrant youth are increasingly criminalized and targeted with new technology. Hence, an idea of children as valuable future resources in need of protection coexists with an idea of children as threats, with technology integral in the governance of both (Lee & Motzkau, 2011). This suggests that the category “child” is gendered, racialized, and more. Investigating how A.I. is developed and implemented within this area is thus an essential task. I aim to investigate how A.I. is used in public management of migrant youth in Sweden, and how conceptions of age, race, ethnicity, and gender is related to this process. I intend to do this by analyzing contemporary A.I. models and technology used in governance of migrant youth. Specifically, I am interested in seeing how a historical and biopolitical lens on A.I. can challenge the dominant modern framework of human rights, children’s rights, and citizenship, highlighting the need to expand scientific enquiries beyond Western conceptions of life in liberal democracy. My chosen empirical case is at least one of the current uses of A.I. in Swedish public management of migrant youth, with surveillance and biometric technology being of particular interest. My project would be a multi-sited study, employing a variety of methods. To understand the links between historical and cultural conceptions of migrant youth and A.I. technologies, I plan to examine the models developed by, and collect oral testimonies from, developers and practitioners, as well as from migrant youth coming in contact with this technology, if deemed ethically appropriate. Additionally, to understand how these perceptions are imbued in A.I. technology, I will also perform observations on sites where A.I. models interact with different agents, human and non-human alike, such as the Police and social services. I will also be complementing this data with secondary sources, such as policy decisions, public statements, but perhaps also popular culture.