US Mexico Border Fence

SPACES AND EXCHANGES

What role does the US-Mexico border play ?

The US-Mexico border is a wall of sheet steel, of wire netting sometimes. It extends on part of the border between Mexico and the United-States to prevent from illegal immigration. To many Mexicans, it's a roadblock that stands in the way of a better life on the other side, in United-States. Indeed, million immigrants try to pass each year. Many of them are pushed back, others are less fortunate... 10 000 migrants are dead in 20 years, trying to pass it secretly.

I – The border, a line between 2 States.

The US-Mexico border is a political border that was born from a war between 2 States : Mexico, and the United States. It holds the mark of the violent confrontation (1836-1853) under which US took hold of 2 millions km2 at the expense of Mexico (Texas, New-Mexico, California and Arizona). The strong hold of Hispanic on these territories is a legacy from the past, as much as the current massive migration. (500 000 migrants, which 75 % come from Mexico, mostly low-qualified, would enter the job market each year whereas only 5 000 visas are granted to this category of workers).

A) A safety boundary

The border is so transformed to be impervious that it becomes more and more a safety boundary : surveillance cameras, electronic walls, veneer of armored cars from the war in Iraq, border patrol supported by national police. The US is obssessed with the securisation of the american territory and make the border hermetic to the illegal immigrants : Already 12 millions on the american floor, whose majority is hispanic.

B) A cultural fence

The border has become a cultural fence between North and South, 2 different standards of living (46 000 $ to the Nord for 13 900 $ to the South), 2 different ways of living where attraction and aversion express themselves. It's a line between the American way of life and the mexicanidada.

C) Place of confrontation

The border is often a place of confrontation (5 000 death in 15 years). There are lobbies (truck drivers who are not allowed to access the american territory) even though the border always had a mythic value of dream and liberty, and it's a key place fot outlaws.

II – The border : a passage area where we meet as much as we fight the unknown

The US-Mexico border is the most crossed border of the world with 3 millions movements each year (legal and illegal migrants, namely more than one million, and half a million pushed back).

To pass the border is to turn a dream into a reality for almost 70 millions tourists, who beneficiate from the mexican low prices and returns in their country after sending ''remesas'' (migrants transfer) for years. So the border works like a safety valve defusing the tensions of the mexican society.

A) Commodity flows

Commodity flows are intense and now 80% of the Mexico exchanges are made with their North neighbours : oil, raw materials, ores, Sonora's farm produces and so much equipments, financial services, cultural sevices (TV, cinema). Infrastructures are saturated in this area where the wage cost is a constant driving force of investments (Minimum 2,9 euro an hour). Nevertheless,

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