Border Permeability Research Articles

Education along border regions in Ireland: Challenges and opportunities

A one-year research project with communities along the border in Ireland, the only land border between the UK and the European Union, examined primary schooling. Created just over a century ago, the border's permeability has varied over time. Some children cross the border to attend primary school, in both directions, but no formal research appears to have been conducted in relation to this movement, its scale or its impact. The 229 primary schools within 3 miles of the border serve diverse communities, some of which appear to straddle the border. Some schools attract some of their intake from across the border, and they may rely on that movement of learners to keep them sustainable, but there has been no published research into how schools in these communities operate, the challenges they face and the opportunities that they can exploit due to their location. In this study, the degree to which the opportunities to use schools across the border is examined and the impact that this has on parents and children and on the schools themselves is explored. Visits to a range of schools on each side of the border and events open to the communities along the border provided considerable information, and a Geographical Information System was used to analyse potential movements of children across the border. The research is original and, while sample sizes are relatively small, this is an important first step to better understand the education provision in these communities. While particularly significant for the people who live in these complex communities, it also contributes to a greater understanding of border education provision which will be important as consideration about the future of the border in Ireland intensifies. Border communities elsewhere may also find consideration of educational provision for liminal communities of interest.

Negotiating the border: Contending with constraints and creating opportunity from Venezuela to Peru

Utilizing a feminist geopolitical lens, this article examines the accounts of 18 Venezuelans who migrated from Venezuela since 2015. I make two main arguments. First, I expand accounts that focus on restrictive mobility regimes in countries receiving migrants to also look at how governments such as Venezuela’s, along with their accompanying border management strategies, limit Venezuelans’ mobility. Many scholars argue that the regulation of borders extends beyond physical territorial boundaries. Here, I show the diverse ways in which Venezuelan government actions impose border constraints both within Venezuela and beyond. Second, recent studies examine migrant management as resulting from an assemblage of different actors and practices, including humanitarian organizations, travel agencies and others. I add to this literature to suggest that acts of solidarity and support from fellow travelers, local individuals who are not part of any formal group, and social media accounts should also be considered part of migrant regimes, shaping border permeability. Policies are reworked through embodied encounters between migrants and a range of other actors in spaces as varied as buses, border checkpoints and food lines, and speak to the importance of multi-scalar accounts to understand migration experiences.

Dialect divergence at the state border: the case of Alsatian and German Alemannic

This paper summarizes recent research on the German/French border in the Upper Rhine Region, where the state border cuts across a traditional Alemannic dialect area. It is argued that the present-day divergence of the dialects is due to different repertoire types and different language ideologies in France and Germany, which counteract the positive effects of border permeability. Despite this general tendency for the dialects to diverge at the state border, it is also shown that traditional regional affiliations with and orientations to Alsace continue to impact the speed of dialect levelling on the German side.

Old stereotypes and new openness: discourses and practices of trans-border re- and disconnection in south-eastern Kazakhstan’s agricultural sector

ABSTRACT Since the Soviet breakup, rural communities in the Kazakhstan–China borderlands have faced cataclysmic social, economic, and ecological transformations. Collective and state farms have been replaced by precarious smallholder agriculture suffering from a decline in financial inputs and the deterioration of infrastructure. At the same time, dynamic transformations of border permeability (and trans-border reconnections) between Kazakhstan and China have challenged the until relatively recent widespread Soviet rhetoric on Western China (or rather Xinjiang) as an underdeveloped space across the border. This article is based on several months of fieldwork between 2019 and 2021 in Panfilov District, located at major cross-border road and railway intersections and hosting important infrastructural objects, such as a dry port, a major railway transhipment hub, and a trans-border special economic zone. The article explores how the border situation (and the border’s changing permeability for people, commodities, and ideas since the early 1990s) as well as the implementation of new trans-border infrastructures eventually shaped local discourses and practices in the socio-economic development of south-east Kazakhstan’s agricultural sector. It is scrutinized herein how various forms of trans-border socio-economic interactions (although heavily regulated) and China’s (agri-) economic policy in Xinjiang started to affect farmers’ ambitions and practices across the border.

Roads, rails, and checkpoints: Assessing the permeability of nation-state borders worldwide

The permeability of nation-state borders determines the flow of people and commodities between countries and therefore greatly influences many aspects of human development from trade and economic inequality to migration and the ethnic composition of societies worldwide. While past research on the topic has focused on border fortification (walls, fences, etc.) or the legal dimension of border controls, we take a different approach by arguing that transport infrastructure (paths, roads, railroads, ferries) together with political checkpoints can be used as valuable indicators for the permeability of borders worldwide. More and better transport infrastructure increases permeability, whereas checkpoints create the political capacity for reducing entries. Using automatized computational methods combined with extensive manual checks, we parse data from OpenStreetMap and the World Food Programme to detect cross-border transport infrastructure and checkpoints. Based on this information, we define an index of border permeability for 312 land borders globally. Subsequent analyses show that regardless of the degree of closure enforcement at checkpoints, Europe and Africa have the most, and the Americas the least, permeable borders worldwide. Regression models reveal that border permeability is higher in densely populated areas and that economic development, by far the most relevant explanatory factor, has a curvilinear relationship with border permeability: Borders of very rich and very poor countries are highly permeable, whereas those of moderately prosperous nation-states are significantly harder to cross. Implications of this remarkably clear pattern are discussed.

Selective border permeability: Governing complex environmental issues through and beyond COVID-19

COVID-19 has changed the permeability of borders in transboundary environmental governance regimes. While borders have always been selectively permeable, the pandemic has reconfigured the nature of cross-border flows of people, natural resources, finances and technologies. This has altered the availability of spaces for enacting sustainability initiatives within and between countries. In Southeast Asia, national governments and businesses seeking to expedite economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession have selectively re-opened borders by accelerating production and revitalizing agro-export growth. Widening regional inequities have also contributed to increased cross-border flows of illicit commodities, such as trafficked wildlife. At the same time, border restrictions under the exigencies of controlling the pandemic have led to a rolling back and scaling down of transboundary environmental agreements, regulations and programs, with important implications for environmental democracy, socio-ecological justice and sustainability. Drawing on evidence from Southeast Asia, the article assesses the policy challenges and opportunities posed by the shifting permeability of borders for organising and operationalising environmental activities at different scales of transboundary governance.

Boosting cross-border regions through better cross-border transport services. The European case

Cross-border regions are the laboratories of European integration. Daily interactions across European borders let citizens experience the benefits of the European Union (EU) internal market. Still, many border barriers continue to prevent individuals and organisations from exploiting the full-potential of European border regions and the benefits of a more integrated European territory. Amongst these barriers are the absence or inappropriate supply of cross-border public transport services. In this context, this paper presents potential policy tools to increase border permeability related to cross-border public transport as well as practical results from a few case-studies implemented across Europe.

Resilient cross-border regional innovation systems for sustainability? A systematic review of drivers and constraints

This paper builds on the idea of cross-border regional innovation system (CBRIS) to investigate the implications of global and regional changes in social, political, economic, and ecological systems on cross-border regions. In an era of increasingly abrupt changes in border permeability, CBRIS offers an intriguing context for studying such processes. Our main contribution is to define a resilient CBRIS (R-CBRIS) for sustainability based on careful reading of previous literature on resilience, sustainability, and CBRIS integration. As merging these concepts requires a sound understanding of the factors driving or constraining CBRIS integration, we conduct a systematic review of the literature to answer our main research question: what factors affect the resilience and sustainability of CBRIS? The literature reveals that the studied CBRIS are not particularly sustainable and that their resilience remains a neglected topic. This is a definite cause for concern for everyone interested in the long-term success of cross-border regions.

The State Border between China and Russia: Permeability and Barriers for International Cooperation

The length of the state border between China and Russia within the territory of the Far East Federal District is more than 4 thousand km. The border has various functions. The contact function of the border is to stimulate economic interactions between countries. The border regions of the two countries benefit from international trade. The contact function is characterised by the permeability of the border. The barrier function of the border is to limit interactions between countries. Restrictions on the free movement of goods, labour resources, tourist flows, and capital are applied. The purpose of the study is to assess the elements of the contact function of the state border between China and Russia. The subject is functioning of the border in the Far East Federal District. The study used methods of economic geography and regional economics. As a result, the indicators of the border permeability between the Russian Far East and China (physical permeability, the density of cross-border infrastructure) were calculated. The characteristics of institutional conditions, such as the speed of customs clearance and the use of digital technologies in paperwork are presented. The conclusion about the low permeability of the border between China and Russia in the territory of the Far East Federal District is made. The directions for increasing the contact function of the border are formulated. The research results can be used to develop directions for the improvement of cross-border relations between Russia and China

Challenges Associated With the Response to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic in Africa-An African Diaspora Perspective.

The 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa extracted huge health, social, and economic costs. How can lessons learnt during the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa help to mitigate the likelihood of a long‐term devastating effect of the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) outbreak on the African continent? Despite COVID‐19 spreading quickly across the globe after being first reported in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019, African countries remained relatively unaffected until the second week of March 2020. The majority of Africa countries have been at low to moderate risk. However, they have experienced many sociocultural, economic, political, and structural challenges. These have included laboratory capacity and logistical challenges; ill‐equipped public health systems; land border permeability, and delayed preparedness to transnational threats; and abject economic deprivation, lack of basic infrastructure, and associated sociocultural implications. There needs to be a strong country‐level leadership to coordinate and own all aspects of the responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic in a collaborative, transparent, and accountable way. Strategic and sustained response plans to fight the pandemic should incorporate culturally competent strategies that harness different cultural practices and strengthen cultural security. They should also promote and strengthen the implementation of the International Health Regulations.

The Study of Human Rights from a Different Perspective

In the current era, human rights has become one of the most serious international issues and has become particularly important in the foreign policy and bilateral and multilateral interactions of countries; So that today no country can deny human rights norms. With the institutionalization of human rights in international politics, the relevant norms have become an integral part of politics between states and societies; and affect the quality and quantity of foreign relations. One of the issues facing the United Nations today; How to balance the sovereignty of states with human rights. In fact, part of the mystery of the relationship between human rights and sovereignty has to do with international law. While some provisions of the UN Charter explicitly support the sovereignty of states, the other part allows the Security Council to use military force wherever necessary to maintain and restore international peace and security. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on the other hand, states that in order to promote development, countries must have friendly relations with each other and respect the freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The trend of globalization and border permeability has affected countries' policies in an interactive and networked environment and has made countries in a cohesive environment sensitive to each other's policies (even human rights behaviors) with their citizens. .

Barrier Function of the Urban Environment and Its Quantitative Assessment (a Case Study of Moscow)

The article analyzes intracity borders–barriers in Moscow. The author calls the barrier between urban nodal areas with a high degree of barrier function a barrier in an urban environment. Such a boundary—rigid, distinct, quasilinear—has existed for a long time (decades or more). The barrier function of the urban environment in the author’s terminology is the degree of disintegration of a city into relatively loosely connected areas with internal integrity. Three types of urban barriers are distinguished in terms of genesis: automobile, railway, and water. Military, forest, industrial, and fenced private areas (condominiums and individual land plots) are beyond the scope of the study. The barriers created by them do not separate social, economic, political, and other areas of cities, but specific territories from the rest of the urban environment (i.e., they are independent regions). For each city, there are barriers with maximum and minimum border permeability. In this case, the permeability of intracity borders is understood as the possibility of intersection and the degree of intersection of the barrier. It is proposed to call an urban barrier with maximum permeability “permissive barrier.” An urban barrier with minimum permeability can be called a “filter barrier.” Comparison of the “permissive barrier” and the “filter barrier” makes it possible to assess the range of territorial differences within the city. Comparison of different types of barriers with permissive and filter barriers makes it possible to estimate the characteristic permeability of the barriers against the maximum and minimum values.

Border permeability and socio‐spatial interaction in Turkish and the EU border regions

AbstractDeveloping a comprehensive understanding for analysing the relational structure of border regions necessitates the evaluation of different dimensions of socio‐spatial interaction, regarding the border permeability. In this framework, the relationships emerging at the borders of national and supranational bodies can be measured under four different categories of economic, social, political/administrative and spatial. These dimensions identify the permeability of borders by exploring how borders separate or connect each side. Within this context, this study redefines borders non‐normatively by using their separation and connection attribute related with their permeability characteristics. It also analyses the changing characteristics of borders from physical barriers to border regions considering socio‐economic and socio‐spatial interaction. As an empirical study, socio‐spatial interactions that define the selective permeability among supranational bodies, nation states and border regions are investigated at the EU (Bulgaria and Greece) and Turkish borders by conducting in‐depth interviews with actors who have cross border relations.

Border Permeability And Drivers Of Cross-Border Cooperation In The Turkish And Eu Border Region

<p>With the impact of globalization, increasing flows of social, economic and political relations have begun to redefine the state borders which causes the rising of new border identities. By this redefinition process, European Union (EU)'s external wall forming the boundaries with the neighbourhood countries have also begun to be rebuilt at local and regional level. Throughout this process, new frontier identities are formed with a degree of permeability where the state’s security policies act as the prior issue in the international relations.</p><p> </p><p>Border permeability, that contains grey values varying from closeness to full openness, defines the degree of permeability according to the size, shape and direction of the flows. Dynamic feature of the flows converts border space into a subject of continuous social, economic and political movement. In such places, actors leading the flows appear as the basic elements of permeability and they can be described as economic, political and socio-cultural agents. At the edge of supranational and national border, actors use networks, which are connected to both local and regional levels, in order to build up cross-border cooperation in different aspects. In this context, border regions transform into a space, where local actors develop methods to overcome the restrictiveness of constraints for the flows among the supranational and the national borders.</p><p> </p><p>This paper aims to evaluate the permeability between EU supranational border and Turkish national border and to define the new cross-border cooperation formed by the social, economic and political flows of the actors. In this context, the permeability and the new border identity will be assessed through three type of administrative body (supranational, national EU and national non-EU) by using the national and local level data supported by EU cross-border programmes and by in-depth interviews conducted at various actors including national institutions, local organizations and NGOs in Turkey.</p>

The Border as a Resource for the Development of Borderland: A Comparative Analysis of Two Polish Urban Centres at the External Border of the European Union

Abstract The entry into force of the Agreement between the Republic of Poland and the Russian Federation on visa- free movement in 2012 caused an increase in border permeability, and hence a sudden increase in border crossings. The border which used to divide the neighbouring states started linking them instead. Crossing the border became part of the everyday life of local communities. Actors on both sides benefited from the commercial services of the other country. For Kaliningrad citizens, border-crossing points became gates to Europe, and for Poles, a resource improving the quality of life via petty trade. The aim of this article is to compare two border cities: Braniewo, a town located in the immediate vicinity of the border-crossing point, and Tri-City, which has become a new border centre after the introduction of small border traffic. Two viewpoints on the effect of local border traffic are presented. The first is the perspective of a typical border city. The other is that of the effect of an increase in border permeability on a major urban centre - Tri-City.

The Role of Flexwork Frequency on Work-Home Border Permeability and ICT Use in Non-Work Hours

Flexible work can take many forms, is facilitated by the widespread adoption of organizational information and communication technologies (ICTs), and can have many possible benefits and disadvantag...

Imaginary Lines: Border Enforcement and the Origins of Undocumented Immigration, 1882 – 1930

During the late nineteenth century, growing concerns in the United States about immigration resulted in a series of laws intended to significantly curtail or ideally stop the entry of economic, medical, political, and racial undesirables. These laws denied entry to many; however, the laws also encouraged immigrants to seek alternative routes. In this timely and succinct study, Patrick Ettinger examines US efforts to control illicit immigration from 1882 to 1930 along the Canadian and, especially, Mexican borders. According to Ettinger, change and continuity characterized US government efforts. Whereas the northern and southern borders during this period changed from nominally “guarded” to heavily patrolled, despite increases in resources, illegal border crossings continued. This “ungovernability” of the border, Ettinger argues, reveals not only the limits of state power in enforcing national boundaries but immigrants’ creative and successful resistance.According to Ettinger, 1882 marked the beginning of significant decades-long efforts to restrict entry based on race, class, and ethnicity. In a pattern that would be repeated, efforts to enforce restrictions against the poor and the Chinese at maritime ports simply led determined immigrants to land in Canada or Mexico and enter the United States along the largely unguarded land borders. As Ettinger explains, by 1891, although many in Congress expressed alarm about the permeability of the Mexican and Canadian borders, they also considered illegal land entries as peripheral and focused instead on expanding the categories of excludable immigrants and enforcing stronger federal control over seaports. While the Immigration Act of 1891 created the Bureau of Immigration, he points out that this new agency struggled to enforce existing laws and failed to keep up with new methods of border crossings that shifted primarily to Mexico after 1902. Violence and dislocations caused by the Mexican Revolution, Ettinger argues, coupled with economic growth in the US Southwest again transformed immigration patterns. For the first time, large-scale Mexican immigration became the norm and by 1930, Mexicans had replaced Asians and Europeans as the main target of border authorities.Although Mexicans were technically subject to immigration restrictions, authorities did not strictly enforce those regulations because Mexicans were seen as temporary visitors and workers. Thus, according to Ettinger, border authorities constructed a “Mexican exception” to restriction laws. Border officials under pressure from competing interests attempted to balance US economic demands against immigration restrictionists. Thus in 1915, when railroad construction declined, officials turned away high numbers of Mexicans at the border as potential paupers. During the economic boom years of 1917 to 1921, farmers’ and railroad executives’ demands for labor resulted in exemptions for tens of thousands of Mexicans. Not surprisingly, there was no significant decline in Mexican migration into the United States when labor demands eased after 1921. Further, even with the creation of the Border Patrol in 1924, there was little change in border permeability. Mexicans, like other immigrants before them, disregarded various requirements for entry, including visas, health certificates, and proof of literacy. Thus, according to Ettinger, the Border Patrol focused on what was possible: creating deterrents and keeping the number of illegal entries down.Ettinger is effective in illustrating the tensions between restrictive legislation and immigrant innovation. While the discussion on the US-Mexico border is focused and well-developed, his examination of the Canadian border lacks depth. For example, according to Ettinger, after 1902, illicit European entry by way of the northern border effectively ended as the Canadian government began serious screening of immigrants arriving at its seaports. Why this change occurred in 1902 and why, how, and if the Canadians successfully controlled their entry ports in the following decades remains unanswered. Further, this also begs the question: Can the permeability of the southern border be attributed simply to the lack of Mexican government cooperation? Despite these gaps, this is an engaging study that students of immigration and border history will find worthwhile.

Analyzing Spatial Drivers in Quantitative Conflict Studies: The Potential and Challenges of Geographic Information Systems

The objective of this literature review is to understand where Graphical Information Systems (GIS) can be useful to address security issues and how it has been used until now. While the geographic drivers of territorial conflicts have been extensively described by a number of political studies, the quantitative analysis of these drivers is quite new. This study traces an evolution from conceptual research to quantitative development. It then discusses the advantages and challenges of applying new geographic techniques to analyze spatial drivers of conflict. We identify the main spatial components in conflict and security, the existing types of information/data and the quantitative methods used. We describe the spatial component of security by looking at: (i) the main sociopolitical concepts linked to territory, (ii) the kind of geographic concepts linked to territory, (iii) measures used to describe such geographic concepts; and (iv) the issues raised in any attempt to integrate geographic concepts into a GIS. We conclude that GIS tools can be useful in the analysis of civil disputes, particularly where subnational level data exists. This paper shows that spatial processing tools in GIS allow us to represent some spatial components and to address new issues such as the fuzzy complexity of border permeability.

Border Permeability and the State in Southeast Asia: Contraband and Regional Security

In Southeast Asia, governments have increasingly tried to regulate international flows of commodities for financial, territorial, and security reasons. This article examines the relationship between borders and contraband in this arena, arguing that their interrelationship has become an important -- and understudied -- part of the regional security mosaic. The article analyses some of the connecting mechanisms between A SEAN frontier regions, and then explores how these mechanisms are being undermined by a range of countervailing forces. Here, the focus is on two contraband lines in particular: the transit of wildlife, and the passage of a diverse spectrum of consumer goods. The widening transit of such commodities presents special challenges to regional security, which are likely to plague local regimes in the foreseeable future. Introduction The security agenda in Southeast Asia has undergone significant broadening in recent decades. Arms races, the desired role of Japan, and conflict in the South China Sea have been joined of Late by cyber warfare, theatre missile defence, and dialogues on Myanmar, among other pressing issues. Scholars have looked at ASEAN's particular dynamics as a security grouping, and have even begun asking whether its characteristics and mechanics might be emulated in other parts of the world. [1] Some of these reappraisals have been part and parcel of a larger shift in the cadence of security studies, not just in Southeast Asia, but on the international stage as well. [2] Yet, there is a growing sense in the literature that Southeast Asia's security equation is especially complex, as states in this region evince highly-complicated interrelationships, governed by a broad spectrum of thorny issues. This has been true at least since the 1960s, but the swirling of these forces seems only to have gathered momentum in the last t wo decades. This article suggests that two concepts -- border permeability and illegal trade -- should have a higher profile within this widening security agenda. The examination of international frontiers in the global political economy has become a fertile field of study in recent years. Ironically, this has happened at the same time that borders are becoming less important, in terms of their restrictive capabilities. [3] Scholars have approached frontiers as part of a regional security context in various ways. Some of the best work have been done in a comparative vein, while the observations and methodologies of anthropologists on the ground have also been very instructive. [4] The transit of illegal trade through borders has also received increasing attention of late, as theorists and planners alike seek to explain how porous boundaries affect the relationships between neighbouring states. [5] Southeast Asia, with its ten sovereign nations, differing systems of government, and myriad border populations, presents an interesting case-study for these dynamics. More than most global arenas, frontiers and illicit commerce here play a fundamental part in the region's security calculus. This article examines these boundaries and flows on a systemic, pan-regional basis. An initial attempt is made to situate Southeast Asia's frontiers in a regional context, as border agreements, surveillance, and organized crime are related to government security concerns. The remainder of the article then delves into two particular contraband lines as windows into these dynamics: the trade in natural resources or biota (including flora and fauna), and the illicit commerce in consumer goods. Both are shown to be enterprises on a huge scale, which have interpenetrated the normal economic flows of the region in a wide variety of ways. The importance of these shadow circuits on commodities cannot be overstated. Money to national treasuries is lost, and ends up in the pockets of actors whose aims are often inimical to the state. Alternative power sources are built, and are then padded with this income for the future. …

Border Permeability and the State in Southeast Asia: Contraband and Regional Security

Border Permeability and the State in Southeast Asia: Contraband and Regional Security