The Eco-Algorithmic Border

Abstract

This article theorizes the eco-algorithmic border as a key formation in the convergence of artificial intelligence, environmental governance, and global border regimes. We argue that AI technologies are increasingly deployed to intensify forms of border violence that frame environmental protection as incompatible with human mobility. This alignment enables the consolidation of anti-migrant and climate-sceptical politics under the guise of technological efficiency. The eco-algorithmic border propels environmental imaginaries towards ecofascist narratives, and reinforcers extractive geopolitics and digitally mediated surveillance. The result is a global infrastructure that anticipates and disciplines climate-induced migration—particularly from the Global South—while facilitating planetary-scale resource extraction and national security agendas. Empowered by geo-spatial datasets and cloud infrastructures, the eco-algorithmic border moves towards paralysing genuine environmental and humanitarian activism, while further enhancing environmental and border imperialisms, and the profiling of counter-border actors and bordered subjects.