The Glitch in the Machine: Biometric Governance of Child Migrants in the EU
Author
Delacour, Edward Charles Richard
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2025
Abstract
This thesis examines how unaccompanied child migrants are governed through the European Union’s biometric border systems. Using the real-world vignette of an 'unfingerprinted child' who crossed Europe without being registered in the Eurodac fingerprint database as a heuristic, it asks how EU asylum and data infrastructures construct the child as a political subject and what this 'glitch' reveals about the Common European Asylum System. The study applies Carol Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) approach to a close reading of three legal regimes—Dublin III, the 2024 Eurodac recast, and the New Pact on Migration and Asylum (including the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation)—and is informed by theories of data colonialism and the politics of possibility. The analysis shows a shift in governance from logistical containment (where the child is mapped), to coercive extraction (where biometric data are mined), and finally to pre-emptive enclosure (where the child becomes a tradable data object). It argues that this biometric architecture dehumanizes the minor by turning care into calculation, yet the 'unfingerprinted child' exposes the system’s porosity and asserts a persistent human agency the state seeks to erase. The findings raise ethical and policy questions about the datafication of children in EU border management.
Dette speciale undersøger, hvordan uledsagede mindreårige styres gennem EU’s biometriske grænsesystemer. Med en virkelig vignette om et 'ufingeraftrykt barn', der krydsede Europa uden at blive registreret i Eurodac-fingeraftryksdatabasen, som metodisk greb spørger det, hvordan EU’s asyl- og datainfrastruktur konstruerer barnet som politisk subjekt, og hvad denne 'glitch' afslører om det Fælles Europæiske Asylsystem. Studien anvender Carol Bacchis What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR)-tilgang i en nærlæsning af tre regelsæt—Dublin III, Eurodac-reformen i 2024 og Den nye Pagt om Migration og Asyl (herunder Asyl- og Migrationsstyringsforordningen)—og informeres af teorier om data-kolonialisme og mulighedernes politik. Analysen peger på et skifte i styring fra logistisk inddæmning (hvor barnet kortlægges), til tvangsmæssig udvinding (hvor biometriske data høstes), og til sidst præventiv indhegning (hvor barnet bliver et omsætteligt dataobjekt). Den hævder, at denne biometriske arkitektur afhumaniserer barnet ved at gøre omsorg til beregning, men at det 'ufingeraftrykte barn' samtidig blotlægger systemets porøsitet og markerer en vedvarende menneskelig handlekraft, som staten søger at eliminere. Resultaterne rejser etiske og politiske spørgsmål om dataficeringen af børn i EU’s grænseforvaltning.
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