Tensions in the U.s.-Mexico Borderlands - From Border Security to Local Insecurity

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.

List of contents

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

Product details

• Authors: Clea Fortune, Cléa Fortuné
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 11.09.2025
• EAN: 9781032791678
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3279167-8
• No. of pages: 190
• Series: Routledge Borderlands Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Modern era up to 1918; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; USA, Ethnic Studies, Sociology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Caribbean & Latin American, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Immigration, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Violence in Society, International Law, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Colonialism & imperialism, Migration, immigration & emigration, Political Economy, Migration, immigration and emigration, Social and cultural anthropology, Colonialism and imperialism, International institutions, Human Geography, Hispanic & Latino Studies, Asylum Law