Devices of suspicion. An analysis of Frontex screening materials at the registration and identification center in Moria

Abstract

The identification of migrants and the creation of data identities lies at the core of datafied forms of migration and border control. In recent years, Frontex has made identification to one of its key tasks and conducted so-called screenings in many EU member states. Yet only little is known about the screening materials in use. Based on an ethnographic inquiry of Frontex’ data practices, this paper analyses Frontex booklets, dossiers, questionnaires, images, and forms and studies how they structure the situation of identification. Making use of research in science and technology studies and recent research on suspicion and credibility assessment, it argues that those materials not only compile information but work as socio-material devices of suspicion that render migrants into fraudsters and translate peoples’ actions, stories, and performances into accounts of truthfulness or deceit. As devices, they frame cases, script interactions, code statements, create stigmata of belonging, and produce purified accounts, and thus enact multiple forms of suspicion. The paper concludes with a critical reflection about the credibility of those materials and speculates about how devices could be designed otherwise.