ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book presents case studies to analyse the monitoring and control practices of European Union (EU) citizens described as the 'Welfare Banopticon' to answer the question: How the interplay between digitalised bureaucracies of welfare providers and the coping strategies of EU newcomers shapes the social sorting of benefit claimants? It presents the counterstrategies of migrants to combat the bureaucratic measures force local authorities to increase control and financial sanctions to catch a glimpse of those who are slipping through their fingers. By increasing the role of screening instruments and profiling of suspicious claimants through algorithms, applicants are under gaze of financial and social monitoring as well as through financial sanctions. The multi-sited fieldwork explores how some Roma migrants as a response try to hide from the virtual Welfare Banopticon, and how the all-seeing eye of digital surveillance shapes their lives in the UK.
