On May 21st 2009, Canadian citizen Suaad Hagi Mohamud attempted to board a flight out of Nairobi to return home to Toronto. Upon examining her passport photo, Kenyan authorities claimed that her facial features looked different, branded her an ‘imposter’ and not the rightful holder of the passport that she presented. A Canadian High Commission official agreed and Kenyan authorities subsequently jailed Mohamud. Mohamud was released and returned to Canada three months later after she requested and was subjected to DNA verification. This verification not only proved who she said she was, but determined her citizenship status as well.
This paper considers the possibilities of “democratic surveillance” in regard to biometric technologies and their “social sorting” uses at international border crossings. Through an examination of the Mohamud case as well as the 1997 installation, Flesh Machine, by Critical Art Ensemble, this paper explores a troubling paradox: the production of different categories of citizenship and the hope of genomics and biometrics at the border. This paper seeks to posit a space for a “critical biometric consciousness” with regard to mobility rights and new regimes of citizenship.
The Surveillance Studies Centre
c/o David Murakami Wood
Department of Criminology
University of Ottawa
Canada