Borderline Disaster

This article argues that the territorial trap and the social amplification of risks associated with a porous border have led to an increased vulnerability for unauthorised migrants along the US-Mexico boundary. A contradiction of globalisation is discussed examining how goods and capital are given more guarantees and social protections than certain people. The concept of escrow is introduced as a mitigation measure to reduce human vulnerability. Examples of other comparable and contentious programs are discussed to support the need for such measures. The discussions and methods outlined in this article, attempt to bring about an increased awareness of the territorial trap and the role it plays in producing the hazardous conditions along the US-Mexico boundary. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author is grateful for the support of the guest editors and the detailed comments from the anonymous reviewers. Notes 1. D. Woodward, ‘Representations of the World’, in R. Abler, M. G. Marcus, J. M. Olson (eds.), Geography's Inner Worlds (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press 1992) pp. 50–73. 2. K. Kosonen, ‘Maps, Newspapers and Nationalism: The Finnish Historical Experience’, GeoJournal 48/2 (1999) pp. 91–100. 3. C. Raffestin, ‘From Text to Image’, in Jacques Levy (ed.), From Geopolitics to Global Politics: A French Connection (London: Routledge 2001) pp. 159–170. 4. N. Blomley, ‘Law, Property, and the Geography of Violence: The Frontier, the Survey, and the Grid’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 93/1 (2003) pp. 121–141. 5. J. Agnew, Geopolitics: Revisioning World Politics (London: Routledge 1998) pp. 51–66. 6. G. Blake, ‘State Limits in the Early Twenty-First Century: Observations on Form and Function’, Geopolitics 5/1 (2000) pp. 1–18. 7. R. E. Kasperson, O. Renn, P. Slovic, H. S. Brown, J. Emel, R. Goble, J. X. Kasperson, and S. Ratick, ‘The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework’, Risk Analysis 8/2 (1988) pp. 177–187. 8. N. J. W. Thrower, ‘William H. Emory and the Mapping of the American Southwest Borderlands’, Terrae Incognitae 22 (1990) pp. 41–92. 9. J. Nevins, Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the “Illegal Alien” and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary (New York: Routledge 2002). 10. Ibid. 11. P. Andreas, ‘The Transformation of Migrant Smuggling across the U.S.-Mexican Border’, in D. Kyle and R. Koslowski (eds.), Global Human Smuggling (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press 2001) pp. 107–125. 12. M. J. Castro, ‘Toward a New Nativism? The Immigration Debate in the United States and its Implications of Latin America and the Caribbean’, in M. J. Castro (ed.), Free Markets, Open Societies, Closed Borders? Trends in International Migration and Immigration Policy in the Americas (Coral Gables, FL: North-South Center Press 1999) pp. 33–52. 13. J. S. W. Park and E. J. W. Park, Probationary Americans: Contemporary Immigration Policies and the Shaping of Asian American Communities (New York: Routledge 2005). 14. Blake (note 6) p. 9. 15. W. A. Cornelius, ‘Death at the Border: Efficacy and Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Control Policy’, Population and Development Review 27/4 (2001). 16. M. Scarpellino, ‘Corriendo: Hard Boundaries, Human Rights and the Undocumented Immigrant’, Conference Presentation: Borderline Contradictions: Neoliberalism, Unauthorized Migrations, and Growing Immigration Policing, The Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, Colorado, 2005. 17. K. Eschbach, J. Hagan, and N. Rodríguez, ‘Deaths During Undocumented Migration: Trends and Policy Implications in the New Era of Homeland Security’, In Defense of the Alien 26 (2003) pp. 37–52. 18. Andreas (note 11). 19. D. Spener, ‘Smuggling Migrants through South Texas: Challenges Posed by Operation Rio Grande’, in D. Kyle and R. Koslowski (eds.), Global Human Smuggling (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press 2001). 20. G. A. Meneses, ‘Human Rights and Undocumented Migration along the Mexican-U.S. Border’, UCLA Law Review 51/1 (2003) pp. 1–38. 21. B. I. Reyes, H. P. Johnson, and R. Van Swearingen, ‘Holding the Line? The Effect of the Recent Border Build-up on Unauthorized Immigration’, Public Policy Institute of California (2002). 22. Agnew (note 5) pp. 67–83. 23. J. Salt and J. Stein, ‘Migration as a Business: The Case of Trafficking’, International Migration 35/4 (1997) pp. 467–498. 24. Eschbach et al. (note 17). 25. E. L. Quarantelli (ed.), ‘What Is A Disaster?: A Dozen Perspectives On The Question’ (London: Routledge 1998). 26. B. Rogaly, D. Massey, and J. Seeley, ‘Migration, Livelihoods and Social Protection’, Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation & Poverty, available at http://www.migrationdrc.org/projects/theme1/sub-theme1.html. 27. M. W. Varsanyi, ‘The Rise and Fall (and rise?) of Noncitizen Voting: Immigration and the Shifting Scales of Citizenship and Suffrage in the United States’, Space and Polity 9/2 (2005) pp. 113–134. 28. R. Sylves and W. R. Cumming, ‘FEMA's Path to Homeland Security: 1979–2003’, Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management 1/2 (2004). 29. H. de Soto, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else (New York: Basic Books). 30. R. E., Goodin, ‘If People Were Money’ in B. Barry and R. E. Goodin (eds.), Free Movement (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press 1992). 31. H. T. Tiffany, ‘Conditional Delivery of Deeds’, Columbia Law Review 14/5 (1914) pp. 389–406. 32. J. Kilian, E. Petrank, ‘Identity Escrow’ in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Proceedings of the 18th Annual International Cryptology Conference on Advances in Cryptology 1462 (London: Springer-Verlag 1998) pp. 169–185. 33. J. K. Watters, M. J. Estilo, G. L. Clark and J. Lorvick, ‘Syringe and needle exchange as HIV/AIDS prevention for injection drug users’, The Journal of the American Medical Association 271/2 (1994) pp. 115–120

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