PR 1450 Introduction to Globalization

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PR 1450Introduction to Globalization

• Week 17
• Globalization and borders
• Chris Rumford

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A borderless world?

• Globalization is sometimes associated with the
  idea that we live in a borderless world
• However, a range of evidence - from the
  increasing number of countries in the world to
  the security rebordering that has occurred
  since the attacks of 9/11 - it is clear that we
  live in a world of proliferating borders
• It is also apparent that borders are changing in
  many ways
• One key change is the location of borders, now
  not always to be found at the edges of the
  nation-state

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Borders are dispersed throughout society

• Borders are to be found
• at airports
• at railway stations
• along motorways
• at travel agents

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• Borders are no longer entirely situated at the
  outer limit of territories they are dispersed a
  little everywhere, wherever the movement of
  information, people and things is happening and
  is controlled (Balibar, 20041).

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Frisk society

• For John Urry passing through public spaces has
  come to resemble our experience of the airport
• places are increasingly like airports using
  novel systems of monitoring, surveillance and
  regulation to control mobile bodies the world
  is increasingly organised to control and regulate
  personal schedules, through gates, camps, sniffer
  dogs, CCTV, face recognition, biometric cameras,
  smart cards, iris recognition, satellites,
  listening bugs (Urry)

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• Airport style mobile metal detectors will be
  issued to police to help them deter knife crime
• The mobile metal detectors could be taken to
  clubs and schools to identify people carrying
  weapons
• The Times, 18 February 2008
• www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article33
  86616.ece

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The UKs offshore borders

• The days when border control started at the
  White Cliffs of Dover are over
• Our immigration control needs to start well
  before people come anywhere near British shores
• Liam Byrne, Immigration Minister

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Juxtaposed borders

• The UK passport checks for Eurostar travellers
  are conducted in Paris and Brussels
• UK borders extend to the heart of Belgium
• This is an example of exporting the border,
  moving a greater proportion of the UK border
  controls overseas.
• (Security in a global hub p.7)

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Securing the UK Border Our Vision and Strategy
for the Future

• Border control can no longer be just a fixed
  line on a map
• We must create a new offshore line of defence,
  checking individuals as far from the UK as
  possible
• The aim is to lay the foundation stone for
  offshore borders all over the world

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• In developing offshore borders the UK relies
  heavily on the e-borders technology, especially
  the use of biometric visas and the remote
  control of passenger carriers
• Biometrics - method for recognizing individuals
  based upon unique physical characteristics

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Remote control

• Remote control is a strategy employed by
  central state agencies to tighten control over
  migration. It involves the co-option of non-state
  actors in the performance of the migration
  control function (i.e. security agencies
  working for airline companies) This serves to
  shift liabilities from central state to private
  actors such as employers, carriers, and travel
  agencies (Lahav and Guiraudon, 2000 58),

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Project Iris

• At Heathrow and other UK airports UK and EU
  citizens can volunteer to have their eye scanned
• The technology works by photographing a
  passenger's iris patterns and storing the data
  along with their passport details
• Registered travelers are approach an automated
  barrier, look into a camera, and bypass normal
  passport control requirements

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• Secure and effective border controls are vital
  to safeguard our citizens against terrorism,
  serious and organised crime and illegal
  immigration, while at the same time facilitating
  entry for legitimate travelers
• Immigration Minister, Tony McNulty

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Mobility versus security

• The border protects the UK from threats such as
  organised crime and terrorism, while at the same
  time facilitates the legitimate movement of goods
  and people on which our economy depends. The
  pressure to meet these two aims and to find the
  appropriate balance between them has become
  more acute and will continue to intensify with
  globalisation, increased volume of traffic, and
  increasing frequency and sophistication of
  attacks on our borders (Cabinet Office, 2007
  18-19)
• Security in a global hub establishing the UKs
  new border arrangements
• www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/upload/assets/www.cabine
  toffice.gov.uk/publications/reports/border_review.
  pdf

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Security versus mobility(key themes in
Security in a global hub)

• strong border controls
• terror and crime
• control
• illegitimate
• improved watchlists
• deterrence
• prevent illegal imports/ protect tax base

• welcoming legit travellers
• people and trade
• facilitation
• legitimate
• trusted traveller schemes
• reassurance/confidence
• EU Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) process
  (fast track)

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• That borders are increasingly discriminatory and
  designed to allow easy passage for some while
  forming a barrier to the movements of others
  (especially refugees, terrorists, traffickers, or
  simply the unwanted) has given rise to the idea
  of borders as asymmetric membranes (Hedetoft,
  2003)

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Rebordering

• Rebordering points to renewed securitization
  in a world of (post 9/11) global threats
• Border are highly permeable they are filters
  that separate out the wanted from the unwanted
  (Andreas, 2000 4)

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The Great Wall of Europe

• The South-Mediterranean Fence
• Israeli fence on West Bank
• Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla
• Institutions, installations, legislations,
  repressive and preventive politics, and
  international agreements which together aim at
  making the liberty of circulation not impossible
  but extremely difficult or for certain categories
  of individuals and certain groups (Balibar, 2006)

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• The Mauritanian Red Crescent say that 1,200
  people died trying to cross illegally into Spain
  via the Canary Islands between November 2005 and
  March 2006
• These border crossing are attempted away from
  the smart borders where entry requires the
  correct documentation

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• In September 2007 the Spanish government began
  airing television adverts in Senegal as part of a
  campaign to discourage potential migrants from
  attempting the dangerous boat voyage to the
  Canary Islands
• Read Spain begins anti-migration ads
• BBC News 20 September 2007
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7004139.s
  tm
• According to BBC News About 6,000 African
  migrants have died or gone missing on the sea
  journey to the Canary Islands in 2006
• Read Canaries migrant death toll soars BBC
  News 28 December 2006
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6213495.s
  tm

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Europes shame

• For three days and three nights, these African
  migrants clung desperately to life. Their means
  of survival is a tuna net, being towed across the
  Mediterranean by a Maltese tug that refused to
  take them on board after their frail boat sank
• The Independent, 28 May 2007 www.independent.co.u
  k/news/europe/europes-shame-450754.html

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Borderwork

• It is not only nation-states that can construct
  or dismantle borders. Borderwork, as I term it,
  is no longer only the business of nation-states,
  it is also the business of citizens. Ordinary
  people are increasingly involved in constructing
  borders (Rumford, 2008)

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Borderwork

• Two dimensions
• politics of everyday fear
• gated community
• suspicion of openness of society e.g. no cold
  calling zones
• people power
• Nationalism e.g. peace walls
• Civil society activism

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Borderwork at the tortilla curtain

• The border between the USA and Mexico is known
  as the tortilla curtain
• Minutemen militia groups are patrolling the
  border and building fences
• Read US 'militia' builds border fence
• BBC News 28 May, 2006
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5025158
  .stm

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Humane borders and Minutemen

• The organization Humane Borders offers
  humanitarian assistance to those in need through
  more than 70 emergency water stations on and near
  the U.S.-Mexican border www.humaneborders.org

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Conclusion the changing nature of borders

• Borders are located throughout society, not just
  at the edges of national polities
• Borders are also located away from the nation
  state offshore or exported borders, for
  example
• Borders increasingly work as filters,
  encouraging the mobility of some while forming a
  barrier to others

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Bibliography

• Andreas, P. 2000 The wall after the wall in P.
  Andreas and T. Snyder (eds) 2000 The Wall Around
  the West State Borders and Immigration Controls
  in North America and Europe (Rowman and
  Littlefield)
• Balibar, E. 2004 We, the People of Europe?
  Reflections on Transnational Citizenship.
  Princeton Princeton University Press.
• Balibar, E. 2006 Strangers as enemies further
  reflections on the aporias of transnational
  citizenship Globalization Working Papers 06/4,
  Institute on Globalization and the Human
  Condition, McMaster University, Canada.

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• Hedetoft, U. 2003 The Global Turn National
  Encounters with the World Aalborg Aalborg
  University Press
• Lahav, G. and Guiraudon, V. 2000 Comparative
  perspectives on border control away from the
  border and outside the state in P. Andreas and
  T. Snyder (eds) The Wall Around the West State
  Borders and Immigration Controls in North America
  and Europe. Lanham Rowman and Littlefield.
• Rumford, C. (2008) Citizens and borderwork
  Space and Polity 12(1)
• Urry, J (undated) Mobility systems
  uit.no/getfile.php?PageId5468FileId7