The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) invites you to join us Tuesday, December 19th from 9:30-11:30 a.m. EST for the launch of Digital Identities and Border Cultures: The Limits of Technosolutionism in the Management of Human Mobility. This latest report from DFRLab Senior Nonresident Fellow Nanjala Nyabola explores how technology is used to manage refugee and migrant populations around the world, creating risks and consequences for human rights.  

In 2021, there were an estimated 281 million migrants globally, comprising refugees and asylum seekers; students, those fleeing environmental and natural disasters, as well as those who relocated moving for work, or leisure; by this count, an estimated 3.6 percent of the world’s population was on the move. These populations exist in legal gray-areas, where domestic laws and protections often do not apply, and states increasingly leverage untested technologies to manage—and track—their movement. The often-charged political context in which policies regarding migration are formed has created a backdoor for states to shift from concepts of legal identity to digital identity outside democratic processes or serious consideration.