The Balsillie Papers Vol. 6 Issue 6 (2025)

The European Union has increasingly integrated advanced technologies—such as biometric databases, AI-driven decision-making systems, and surveillance tools—into its migration and border governance. This technological shift raises urgent ethical and legal concerns, as it often results in the dehumanization, exclusion, and rights violations of migrants. This research examines how these technologies are used by states to control migration and by migrants and solidarity networks to resist restrictive border regimes. Drawing on policy analysis, case studies, and documentation from human rights organizations, the study analyzes both institutional uses of technology and grassroots digital resistance. The findings show that while EU states use technology to externalize and securitize borders, migrants and solidarity actors repurpose the same tools to navigate, document, and contest border violence. These insights underscore the need for transparent, rights-based governance of migration technologies and challenge dominant narratives of technological neutrality in border control.

International Health Trends and Perspectives, 4(3), 60–75 (2024)

with Karen Frensch, Bree Akesson and Al Hasnaa Keftaro.

Of the estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, one in four women are of childbearing age. Pregnancy loss is more common in low-resource settings, yet health services addressing it remain scarce. This study explores how Syrian refugee families in Lebanon experience pregnancy loss within this context. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach, researchers interviewed 15 mother-father dyads in the Bekaa region and held peer group discussions with mothers (n=8), fathers (n=7), and health practitioners (n=10), along with individual interviews with practitioners (n=3). Both parents and practitioners reported a lack of dedicated services after pregnancy loss and a predominant medical focus in care. Parents lacked awareness of existing services, while practitioners emphasized prevention through awareness sessions. Both groups identified the need for psychological and practical support, including greater father engagement. The study reveals overlapping and divergent service priorities, pointing to key areas for reform.

In L. Sadiki & L. Saleh (Eds.), COVID-19 and risk society across the MENA region: Assessing governance, democracy, and inequality (pp. 195–214). I.B. Tauris, Bloomsbury Publishing.

with Ravza Altuntaş-Çakır and Ayşegül Gökalp Kutlu

The COVID-19 pandemic created a “double emergency” for refugees by limiting access to health services and essential social, economic, and educational resources. For refugee women and girls, these challenges were compounded by gender-based vulnerabilities, including increased domestic violence, early marriage, school dropouts, unemployment, and lack of access to online education and healthcare. In this chapter, we adopt a gender-based, intersectional approach to examine how refugee women in Turkey experienced heightened insecurity during the pandemic. We draw on feminist International Relations (IR) theory, which expands the concept of security beyond state-centered frameworks to include threats like gender-based violence, poverty, and ecological degradation. We offer a theoretical discussion of this multidimensional notion of security and analyze how refugee women navigate the intersecting impacts of displacement, gender, and the pandemic.