Interoperability and the multiple modes of ordering in Europe's digital border regime

Abstract

Drawing on qualitative interview data and document analysis, this article traces the making of interoperability between databases as a policy response to Europe's crisis-laden management of migration. It argues that, rather than adhering to a singular logic, the policy enacts several modes of ordering through which actors employ distinct meanings and rationales, deal with challenges and complexities, and evoke continuity and/or disruption in the digital bordering of migration. Specifically, four ordering patterns are identified: interoperability as a technological project, as database (re-)administration, as legal configuration and as political vision. Each mode assembles and performs the interoperability policy differently, uses modes of expression, proposes certain problems and interventions and also engenders forms of othering. Therefore, this article examines interoperability in the border regime as an example of how the digitization of borders and migration is driven by multiple—and partially conflicting—rationales and ordering intentions.