ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that border crossers increasingly reclaim technology in order to facilitate their migratory projects and challenge the narrative of the “dangerous migrant”. It analyses a range of counter-security technologies and practices of reclaiming technology by migrants in the Western Balkans. The chapter focuses on re-appropriating technology to enable mobility, advance social memory, and de-securitise and re-humanise border crossers. Technology has the potential to mobilise the public by countering securitisation narratives about illegalised migration and facilitate migrants’ cross-border journeys. Technology serves not only as a mobility regulator but also as an enabler, a potential key tool in the de-securitisation and re-humanisation of migrants. Mobile phones and social media play an important role in the facilitation of international migration. Securitisation of migration as a discursive practice brings the issue of supposedly risky, dangerous border crossers into the political arena and justifies extraordinary interventions, which often include violation of human rights, in order to mitigate the risk.
