Methodology
Company identification
To identify companies with links to the border industry, we mainly consulted existing reports and research output about different segments or geographies of the border industry. Those included the reports of the Transnational Institute (TNI), the AFSC Investigate Border Research database and Divest For Immigrant Justice List, and a report from Privacy International. We also did desk research to identify additional companies mostly with links to the UK and EU border regimes.
The geographical focus of the BDL is on the UK, US-Mexican border (mainly based on research by AFSC and TNI) and Europe (incl. the Mediterranean Sea).
Company assessment
While there are fossil fuel companies that can relatively easy be identified (and included on the fossil fuel divestment list) by looking at how much the business model relies on the production and sales of crude oil, natural gas, and thermal coal (or the size of yet unproduced fossil fuel reserves), there are no ‘border companies’.
That is why the decision over a company's inclusion in the People & Planet Border Divestment List (BDL) was made based on an evaluation of six quantitative and qualitative criteria (below) that seek to capture the extent to which a company is involved in the border industry. Our aim is to identify publicly listed companies which engage in corporate activities that play a significant role in the construction and/or operation of border infrastructures (physical and digital).
We evaluate companies based on all criteria for which information is publicly available. Our two key criteria are if there is quantitative or qualitative evidence that the company in question engages in corporate activities that characterize the border industry. We used the other four criteria to evaluate:
a) the extent to which the corporate activities related to the border industry are important (that is, financially material or strategic) to the company itself.
b) the extent to which the corporate activities related to the border industry are important for the public authority purchasing goods/services.
By taking this lens, we included companies on the BDL for which corporate activities related to the border industry only account for a small share of their operations (or revenues) but whose services are vital for the construction and/or operation of border infrastructures.
Company inclusion criteria
We made the final decision which companies to include in the BDL on a company-by-company basis after carefully considering the assessments of all six criteria outlined below.
Quantitative criteria
- Financial materiality: is the reprehensible corporate activity financially material for the company in question? (>10% of total annual revenues)
- Is it possible to quantify monetary contract values related to the reprehensible corporate activity?
Qualitative criteria
- Is there qualitative evidence of reprehensible corporate activities?
- Is the corporate activity part of a separate business unit, product group, and/or of strategic importance for the company in question?
- Is the company in question directly or indirectly involved in active lobbying efforts to influence policy making in favor of the border industry in general and/or the specific reprehensible corporate activity in question?
- To what extent are government authorities dependent on purchasing the corporative activity from the company in question?
Limitations
We acknowledge that the resulting list of companies is not comprehensive and do not claim that it captures all companies engaged in activities related to the border industry in the geographies outlined above. Firstly, our BDL doesn’t include any companies which are not publicly traded, as these companies cannot be invested in. While there are a number of these companies who are key players in the industry, they are not within reach of this campaign. Additionally, this version of the BDL does not include all airline companies who are complicit in deportation, but currently only those who are the most active in this area. Further, the list also does not include banks and institutional investors that provide debt finance (e.g., loans or bonds) to companies listed on the BDL and thus provide the latter with crucial financial sources to advance border infrastructure projects. We aim to include both groups of companies in the next iteration of the list.
Full Methodology
