As the fortification of Europe's borders and its hostile immigration terrain has taken shape, so too have the biometric and digital surveillance industries. And when US Immigration Customs Enforcement aggressively reinforced its program of raids, detention, and family separation, it was powered by Silicon Valley corporations. In cities of refuge, where communities on the move once lived in anonymity and proximity to familial and diaspora networks, the possibility for escape is diminishing.
As cities rely increasingly on tech companies to develop digital urban infrastructures for accessing information, identification, services, and socioeconomic life at large, they also invite the border to encroach further on migrant communities, networks, and bodies. In this book, Matt Mahmoudi unveils how the unsettling convergence of Silicon Valley logics, austere and xenophobic migration management practices, and racial capitalism has allowed tech companies to close in on the final frontiers of fugitivity—and suggests how we might counteract their machines through our own refusal.
By:
Matt Mahmoudi
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 408g
ISBN: 9780520397019
ISBN 10: 0520397010
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 07 September 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Contents Acknowledgments List of Acronyms Glossary Introduction PART 1: RACE, BORDER, AND CAPITAL ENTANGLEMENTS 1. Racism Is a Feature (Not a Bug) 2. The Making of the Digital Periphery PART 2: RACE IN THE DIGITAL CITY 3. Xenophobic Roots, Tolerant Facades 4. The Digital Antisanctuary of New York 5. Digital Refugeeness in Berlin PART 3: MACHINE-BREAKING, NEO-LUDDISM, AND FUGITIVITY 6. Disciplining Mobilities in the Digital Periphery Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
Matt Mahmoudi is Assistant Professor at the University of Cambridge, where he works on racialized borders in digital cities. He has led Amnesty International's research on biometrics from New York City to Palestine and coedited Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence.
