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Cited by 109Migration, Refugees, and IntegrationMigration and Exile StudiesBlockchain Technology Applications and Security

The DOI matches its Crossref record, with a small difference in title or year; 72 of the 75 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Self-Sovereignty for Refugees? The Contested Horizons of Digital Identity

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Cheesman, Margie·2022·Geopolitics
DOI 10.1080/14650045.2020.1823836
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Abstract

This paper critically examines the implications of ‘self-sovereign identity’ (SSI) for border politics and migration management. SSI refers to user-controlled, decentralised forms of digital identification. Closely linked with the distributed ledger technology blockchain, SSI is presented by advocates as a tool to empower marginalised groups, including refugees. Among other benefits, some claim that SSI removes the need for powerful, centralised institutional structures by giving individuals control and ownership of their identity information. However, through ethnographic research in an international aid organisation, I find that SSI is an embryonic technology with indeterminate properties and benefits. I identify a series of competing logics in the debates around SSI’s emancipatory potential, which relate to four issues: (i) the neutrality of the technology, (ii) the capacities of refugees, (iii) global governance and the nation state, and (iv) new economic models for digital identity. SSI is simultaneously the potential enabler of new modes of empowerment, autonomy and data security for refugees and a means of maintaining and extending bureaucratic and commercial power. I situate SSI in a genealogy of systems of identity control and argue that, in practice, it is likely to feed into the powers of corporations and states over refugee populations.

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Show all 75 references

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. 10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004 · DOI · Paper page
  2. IOM & APSCA. 2018. 5th border management and identity conference (BMIC) on technical cooperation and capacity building. Bangkok: BMIC. http://cb4ibm.iom.int/bmic5/assets/documents/5BMIC-Information-Brochure.pdf.
  3. 10.1146/annurev.anthro.24.1.493 · DOI
  4. Red Cross 510. 2018“An Initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross Is Exploring the Use of Self Managed Identity in Humanitarian Aid with Tykn.Tech.”https://www.510.global/510-x-tykn-press-release/.
  5. Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform Capitalism. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press
  6. Stevens L. 2018. Self-sovereign identity systems for humanitarian interventions a case study on protective cash transfer programs. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f821/4975160857f1f020ff8dbc2db65f88fcac03.pdf.
  7. Swartz, L. 2017. Blockchain dreams: Imagining techno-economic alternatives after bitcoin. In Another economy is possible: Culture and economy in a time of crisis, ed. M. Castells, 82–105.Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.
  8. Walch, A. 2017b. The path of the blockchain lexicon (and the law). Review of Banking & Financial Law 36:713. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2940335.

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Metadata

Authors
Cheesman, M.
Affiliations
University of Oxford (GB)
Corresponding author
Cheesman, Margie
ORCID
Cheesman, Margie
Venue
Geopolitics
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2020-10-04
Volume
27
Issue
1
Pages
134-159
ISSN
  • 1465-0045 (ISSN-L)
  • 1557-3028
DOI
10.1080/14650045.2020.1823836
OpenAlex
W3090713708
Cited by
109
References
75
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 10
FWCI
16.02
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Geopolitics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Refugees, and Integration
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration and Exile Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Keywords
self-sovereign identity, digital identity, refugees, blockchain, border politics, migration management, identity control, technological neutrality, global governance, nation-state, digital economy, data security, refugee empowerment

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