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■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ introduction the united states–mexico border Communities along the United States–Mexico border have a great deal in common, including a shared history, two deserts, rapid population growth, thriving tourism, and deepening economic integration. Day-today life for people living along the border is shaped by these common elements , plus the distinctive feature of an international border that divides families, friends, and businesses. The challenges posed by an international boundary that draws into proximity two vastly different countries while simultaneously dividing local communities of great similarity represent a complex mix of economics, politics, culture, and language. Directly or indirectly, the international boundary affects the daily life of nearly everyone living near the border through its impact on economic and political relationships, family and social ties, and the shared natural environment. Throughout this book, we use the terms border area or border region as a linguistic shorthand; in fact, the U.S.-Mexico border comprises many regions. In an effort to discern the nature of the borderland, however, we will look first to a more general description. Culturally, the U.S.-Mexico border marks the intersection of cuisines, music, and languages from North America and Latin America. Economically, the border separates a developed country and a developing country, with one of the largest crossborder income gaps in the world. Nevertheless, in every economic and demographic category, the local and regional disparities are less than those between the two countries as a whole: whereas the Mexican border region is wealthier than Mexico as a whole, the U.S. border region is mostly poorer than the rest of the United States, thus bringing communities 2 introduction on either side of the border closer together than the enormous economic differences at the scale of the nation would suggest. The relatively smaller economic differences and greater similarities at the level of communities straddling the border make the border area unique. Most public attention on U.S.-Mexico relations is focused on Washington , D.C., and Mexico, D.F. The latest statements from ambassadors, the personal relations of the presidents, or position papers on national migration policy capture most of the headlines, but beneath these high-level contacts and debates is a vast array of person-to-person contacts, most operating far outside the notice of the respective capitals or the major media. These contacts occur within the business and social networks of families that live on both sides of the border, of friends and colleagues who work, shop, socialize, and collaborate across the border, and of businesses that draw materials and labor from either side of the border to produce goods and services that are sent to local and distant markets. Borderlanders take note of the latest blowup in U.S.-Mexico relations and the policy maneuvers of political insiders in border states and the national capitals, and then they go about their activities as before. The irony of the border is that it is the source of most of the integration between the United States and Mexico, but the national attention of both countries is focused elsewhere, as if the national capitals were in control. National policies are not unimportant, but those policies do not determine the enormous current of activities that is carrying the United States and Mexico toward a deeper level of integration. Rather, integration is rooted in the shared histories, migration and demographic changes, foreign investments , businesses, local governments, and the decisions of millions of families and friends engaging in activities that require border crossing. This ocean of local activity is largely beyond the control of national policy makers, who are viewed by many borderlanders as incompetent at best, and often positively harmful. Within the border region there is a high level of recognition that national governments impede border relations at least as often as they enable them. At times this interference is by design, as when border crossing is intentionally slowed in order to interdict drugs or to search for other contraband , but at other times it is an unintended consequence of policies, as when border restrictions prevent twin cities from efficiently moving emergency responders and their equipment from one side of the border to the other. (Twin cities is the term given to a pair of cities, one Mexican, one U.S., that lie on either side of the border. This pairing of cities occurs along the entire length of the border. For example, Brownsville and Matamoros [3.147.104.248] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 10:54 GMT...

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