The U.S.-Mexico border as liminal space: implications for policy and administration. Issue 1 (2nd January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Elías, María Verónica
• Is Part Of: Critical policy studies. Volume 17:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 63
• Page End: 81
• Publication Date: 2023-01-02
• Subjects: Critical border policy -- U.S.-Mexico border -- Liminality -- public policy and administration -- interpretivism -- lived experience; Policy sciences -- Periodicals; 320.6
• DOI: 10.1080/19460171.2021.2017999
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1946-0171

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the U.S.-Mexico border by exploring the concepts of otherness and liminality in light of restrictive immigration discourses that otherize undocumented Hispanics as a 'threat to the whole.' Through the use of ethnographic sources this paper argues that face-to-face interactions unveil a much more complex picture of life in the borderlands. The border emerges as a diverse realm of pull and push forces, with most people experiencing resistance and aversion at some point of their lives and opportunity and mobility at others. The liminal – understood as the in-between space along nation-state borders – helps account for the continuously transitional borderland experiences where both possibility and heightened risk may be at stake. Finally, the author suggests ways in which experiential understanding can help foment a more democratic and effective border policy making and implementation process.