Gender Markers in Passports and the Digital Racial Borders of the European Union

Abstract

The Article analyzes how gender markers on passports are used to bolster the digital racial borders of the European Union (EU). It traces the history of gender markers on passports, showing that they increasingly emerged in the EU and elsewhere as part of border digitalization processes from the 1980s onward. It further investigates how gender markers on passports increasingly serve border-related risk assessments by examining the ongoing expansion of Advanced Passenger Information, Passenger Name Records, and the Visa Information System in the EU. While this analysis shows that gender markers help to identify the “unwanted” migrant¬—a deeply racialized concept—the Article also interrogates whether abolishing gender markers would necessarily render borders gender- or race-neutral. It therefore explores how border governance that relies on big data and biometric tools, rather than gender markers, may equally reinforce cisnormative and racialized borders.