Over the last 30 years, the U.S. government has reinforced security around its borderlands with Mexico continuously, with migration becoming a top political issue. But what does this mean for the residents whose lives straddle the border? This book investigates the disconnect between what border security represents for state and non-state actors and the social, economic, and cultural realities of the borderlanders living in U.S.-Mexico border towns.
Focusing on the sister cities of Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Sonora, this book classifies borderlanders into four categories and highlights the ways in which border security actually creates disruptions in historical cross-border interactions and forms of economic and human insecurity. This book paints a rich picture of transborder connectedness, which contrasts starkly with the rhetoric of fear and invasion used by state and non-state actors. Its findings will be of interest to researchers and students working on border studies, international relations, geography, and security studies.
This book investigates the disconnect between what border security represents for state and non-state actors, and the social, economic, and cultural realities of the borderlanders living in U.S.-Mexico border towns.
Introduction Douglas/Agua Prieta: A History PART
1. Who Defines
Security? The US Government and Non-State Actors
1. The Securitization of
Immigration: A Rhetoric Built Around Myths
2. The Construction of Walls as a
Standard Response to Insecurity
3. The Rise of Non-State Actors Along the
U.S.-Mexico Border Shaping the Narrative Around National Security PART
2. The
Lived Realities of Border Residents
4. Anglo American Borderlanders
5.
Mexican American Borderlanders
6. Mexican Borderlanders
7. Migrants PART
3.
The Paradoxes of Border Enforcement: From Federal Security to Local
Insecurity
8. Disruption of Cross-Border Mobility in an Era of Border
Security
9. The Economic Costs of Border Security on Small Border Towns
10.
The Migratory Journey: Fleeing Violence, Facing Violence. How US and Mexican
State Violence Leads to Human Insecurity Conclusion
Cléa Fortuné is Associate Professor at the University Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France. She is a member of the Center for Research on the English-Speaking World (CREW EA4399) and the Institut des Langues et Cultures dEurope, Amérique, Afrique, Asie et Australie (ILCEA4). Her research examines border issues, security policies and transnational relations, with a particular focus on the dynamics of the U.S.-Mexico border region. She has contributed to several publications and has co-authored works such as Les États-Unis et lAmérique latine, de Franklin Delano Roosevelt ą Barack Obama, 1933-2017, which explores U.S.-Latin American relations during that period. She also appears in the French and Swiss media to discuss issues related to the U.S.-Mexico border.
