Work

The Banalisation of ‘Suspicion’: Politics of Prevention, Digitisation of Prediction, Fate of Travellers

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT This article argues that there is no single form of security that reduces insecurity but rather forms of (in)security that are contradictory and mutually destructive. This is the case between traditional liberal security, based on evidence, the individual and the penal order, and contemporary predictive preventive security, based on ‘reasonable’ suspicion. The digitisation of data has accelerated this trend towards preventive security, which is created through the creation of specific data‐organising categories according to algorithms, the sorting out of profiles of ‘persons of concern’ ranked according to their level of danger, and the so‐called ability of artificial intelligence to predict the future behaviour of individuals in order to place some of them under surveillance. This applies not only to terrorists or criminals, but also to many international travellers, making their use banal. The databases of the European agency EU‐LISA will help to show the functioning of this new ‘dispositif’ of suspicion, which endangers democratic politics.

Source: International Migration

DOI: 10.1111/imig.70047

Author: Didier Bigo

Institutions: University of Liverpool, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, Centre d'études et de recherches internationales de Sciences Po

Language: English

Topic: Gender and Women's Rights

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,500