Blood and Borders: Geographies of Social Reproduction in Ciudad Juárez–El Paso

Abstract

Each week, thousands of Mexican nationals living in northern Mexican border cities cross the border into the United States with nonimmigrant visas to “donate” blood plasma at commercial collection centers in exchange for a prepaid Visa gift card (valued at up to US$50). For these individuals, many of whom work on maquiladora assembly lines, a single donation can nearly double their weekly wages. If the ability to keep wages low remains a key means of leveraging the border’s competitiveness in the global economy, we argue that the devaluation of maquiladora labor in fact relies on the capacity of communities and households to increasingly absorb the hidden costs of social reproduction. Grounded in two years of ethnographic research in Ciudad Juárez–El Paso, this article argues that plasma donation is an increasingly vital strategy through which Mexican households meet the costs of social reproduction. Further, participation in the cross-border plasma economy is inseparable from institutions and frameworks that govern border crossing. By following the movement of Mexican blood plasma across the border, it becomes possible to understand how the border itself—as a material barrier and geopolitical project—shapes collective capacities for social reproduction.