Lawyer’s Notebook:
The Walls Have Eyes

Borders are violent. Yet they are also spaces of tremendous resistance and solidarity, often in very unexpected ways. Storytelling and story sharing is one form of resistance—a profound and crucial element in any attempt to illustrate the opaque world of border technologies.

Over the years, people have been incredibly generous in sharing their stories with me, often in the most difficult of times. Since 2018 I have also been archiving audio, visual, and written material, both as a way to remember and to stitch together the complex tapestry of human movement. A large pile of dog-eared papers and coffee-stained notebooks has traveled the world with me, from Greece, to Mexico, to Kenya, to Palestine, with a small coffee cup full of ash from the Moria refugee camp and various other treasures sitting on my desk - a daily reminder of the material reality of this work. 

This Lawyer’s Notebook augments The Walls Have Eyes. Here you will recognize the stories woven through the book’s chapters and you may also learn something new - because ultimately, these issues are not just about far-flung refugee camps or opaque borders. The ecosystem of migration management technologies affects us all. 

*All material by Petra Molnar