Cross-border Mobility Research Articles

Agile in the fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lesson from Acehnese’s Local Wisdom and Aceh’s Readiness dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Acehnese have a long history of disaster preparedness due to their experience with natural disasters, including tsunamis and epidemics. During the COVID-19 outbreak, Aceh has benefited from many lessons from collaboration at the central, regional, and village/gampong levels by the government and PENTAHELIX actors such as communities, academics, religious leaders, mass media, entrepreneurs, philanthropy, and local wisdom combined with modern technology for cross-border mobility. Handling COVID-19 in Aceh has strengths in the form of unique local wisdom and privileges of Aceh Province. This paper provides the best lessons on readiness, response, recovery efforts, a new disaster risk reduction approach, and future recommendations from the Aceh Province during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Acehnese’s local wisdom is salt, water in the jar (le lam guci), henna on fingers (pakek gaca), chewing betel leaf (pajoh ranup), burning rice (tuet leumang), isolation of the sick, and hold a prayer, is obtained from the plague experience in the past.

The Euregional policy impact of COVID 19 on the border region between the Netherlands, North-Rhine Westphalia and Belgium

Abstract During the Coronavirus pandemic, internal European borders were temporarily re-established with the argument to mitigate the outbreak. Also in the border region between the Netherlands, North-Rhine Westphalia and Belgium (EMR). Existing evidence on the effectiveness of border control for infectious disease control (IDC) has been dominated by studies that focused on scenarios within countries with limited attention to border regions. To address this gap, we analysed the experiences of public health professionals working in European border regions. We conducted three studies: 1. seroprevalence and questionnaire study among 10.001 Dutch persons with and without cross border mobility, 2. analyses of incidence data in municipalities in 4 cross border regions to analyse cross border differences, and 3. we conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with public health professionals in the EMR. Participants were asked about their perspectives on border controls and the spread of Covid-19. Four key-results: First, border regions are characterised by dynamic social life and cross-border movements. Incidence was mainly determined by country policy, Second, the impact of border control and closing on local infectious disease epidemics is likely marginal. Third, due to the dynamic social life, border control measures cannot be fully implemented in border regions, and thus their effectiveness is even more questionable. Fourth, border control measures may harm the social fabric of border regions more than they do in in-countries territories. Our study results highlighted the ineffective role of border control measures for regional infectious disease control. Sustainable cross-border collaboration is crucial to ensure effective pandemic management in border regions. The results of our study impacted on policy makers, to be much more reluctant with closing borders.

Современные нарративы применения международных экономических санкций

Recently the role of sanction restrictions has sharply increased in the practice of regulating economic relations between countries, meanwhile their application is determined by many factors. At the same time, in the context of intensifying geopolitical competition and growing volatility of the global economy, the dynamics of sanctions application raises more and more questions. On the one hand, economic sanctions are an instrument of coercion for target countries, and on the other hand they make international exchange and cross-border mobility of the factor more and more vulnerable. Heterogeneous nature of the economic sanctions’ impact on sending and target countries does not allow us to say that sanctions are an unambiguous instrument of an effective trade policy. This article analyzes the key narratives of economic sanctions regimes in all their diversity at the present stage, new forms and mechanisms of sanctions, as well as their consequences for various aspects of life of the world community.

Comprehensive Approaches in the Global Compact for Migration and the EU Border Policies: A Critical Appraisal

The quest for safe, orderly and regular migration underpins the UN Global Compact for Migration (GCM) and translates into “comprehensive and integrated” responses to large movements of refugees and migrants. The effort to de-compartmentalise the governance of cross-border human mobility through “comprehensiveness” shapes the overall search for greater policy coherence via regime interaction and shared responsibility within the GCM. A similar effort has been made at the EU level to overcome the “silos approach” characterising the distinct policies on migration, asylum, and border management. This parallelism is particularly meaningful as the reason is twofold: at the operational level, because of the role played by the EU in fashioning the cooperation models underpinning the GCM, which enhances the relevance of EU law and practice for the implementation of the GCM; at the normative level, because the GCM draws on four guiding principles—i.e., sovereignty, good governance, human-centricity, and the rule of law—which are also key features of the EU legal system. Departing from these premises, this article reveals the meaning of “comprehensive and integrated” responses to large movements of refugees and migrants in the GCM and EU border policies. It does so in order to provide a critical appraisal of the legal and policy implications of comprehensive approaches in the global and European governance of cross-border human mobility.

Transitioning out of illegalization: Cross-border mobility experiences

It is known that opportunities to cross borders legally, acquired through regularization programs, are acknowledged by previously illegalized migrants as one of the main positive effects of obtaining a residence permit. However, the impact of these policies has rarely been investigated through the “mobility lens.” To fulfill this gap, this study aims, through a case study, (1) to assess how obtaining a residence permit after having endured years of illegalization affects migrants' cross-border mobility and (2) to identify the direct and indirect transformative effects triggered by these changes in cross-border mobility. Our analysis considers regularization policies as a transformation of mobility regimes in which individual mobility trajectories are embedded. Thirty-nine migrants transitioning out of illegalization through an extraordinary regularization program implemented between 2017 and 2018 in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland, were interviewed twice at a time interval of more than 1.5 years. Changes in actual mobility and perceived potential mobility (“motility”) were identified in the narratives. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify related transformative effects. As a complement, descriptive statistics using two-wave panel data collected among a broader sample of migrants in the same context provided measures of cross-border mobility. Our findings highlight the importance of considering changes related to cross-border mobility when studying the impact of regularization programs on migrants' wellbeing, as they are a crucial ingredient of deeper adjustments occurring in their lives. We emphasize the importance of considering not only the subjective and objective effects triggered by increased actual mobility but also the subjective effects triggered by perceived increased potential mobility. Indeed, becoming aware of the new opportunities to cross borders leads to transforming imagined futures, subjectivities, identities, concerns, and perceived sources of stress, and it affects emotional wellbeing. The findings underline the relevance of a processual approach for two reasons: first, having experienced a long-lasting illegalization and forced immobility continues to affect individuals' experience of cross-border (im)mobility even after regularization; second, the triggered transformative effects take time to develop and observations at different times provide a richer picture.

Posting of workers and the border of the labour market

Drawing on research conducted by the authors in the frame of the POSTING.STAT research project, this article explores the legal fiction that posted workers do not, at any time, ‘gain access’ to the labour market of a host State where they are in fact (temporarily) working. Hence, it analyses following question: at what point and under which circumstances are posted workers considered as working in a given Member State? To do so, it considers the use of the concept of ‘labour market’ across the case law of the Court of Justice concerning posting workers, to identify the constitutive elements of the implicit definition adopted by the Court. This analysis is compared with economic/statistical assumptions applied when measuring employment in a country. From a statistical point of view, the labour market appears to be demarcated by the place of establishment of the employer, thus excluding work (i.e., services) carried out through non-established employers. Consequently, cross-border labour mobility through the freedom to provide services does not fall within these boundaries and means that posted workers are counted in the employment statistics of their Member State of origin. The approach to posted workers in the labour market of the host State is therefore not only a legal, but also a statistical/economic, fiction. Based on an empirical reality that shows a strong concentration of posted workers in certain sectors, Member States or regions, we argue that courts and legislators, and also national statistical offices, should reconsider this approach.

(Im)mobility and performance of emotions: Chinese international students' difficult journeys to home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article examines mediated performances of emotions by Chinese international students in their transnational journeys returning to China during the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the role of mobile media in helping students cope with their cross-border (im)mobility and symbolic immobility. By thematically analyzing 36 self-representational videos produced by returning Chinese students on a burgeoning mobile media platform Douyin, we identify 5 overarching themes of emotional performance: fear, pride, gratitude, shame, and solidarity. We propose that mobile media has the potential to create a hybrid space that witnesses and elicits empathy for the hardship experienced by marginalized mobile groups during the global pandemic. Mobile media, by enabling simultaneous communication, amplifies the sensation of belonging in times of isolation and ambiguity and offers dialogic venues for disparate groups across geographical and socioemotional distances. Our findings suggest the vulnerability of mobile communities in the event of a global pandemic, and the affordances of mobile media in confronting and resolving such precarity. We call attention to the intersections of mobile communities and mobile media amid the global pandemic, particularlyon the experiences and performances of emotions in hybrid spaces.

Infrastructures and b/ordering: how Chinese projects are ordering China–Myanmar border spaces

ABSTRACT Border regions worldwide have gained prominence for how nation-states order, divide and understand the world. This is increasingly made explicit in the selective management of global commercial and human flows, leading to a paradoxical development and a major dilemma for the contemporary bordering practices in border regions: that of concurrently facilitating differentiated mobility while ensuring territorial integrity, securing both territories and flows. This paper argues that large-scale transnational infrastructures, by controlling, facilitating and channelizing cross-border mobilities, have emerged as a major instrument of b/ordering space in borderlands. This is especially relevant in Asia, where transnational, cross-border connectivity infrastructure projects have mushroomed, supported by political rhetoric, big budgets and diplomatic vigour. Grounded in long-term ethnographic research, the paper scrutinizes variegated infrastructure spaces in the seemingly remote and conflict-riddled borderlands between China’s Yunnan province and northern Myanmar’s Kachin state, subject to intensive Chinese infrastructure developments since the mid-1990s, further accelerated by the launch of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2015. The paper argues that infrastructures such as roads, plantations and special economic zones have started to regulate these volatile and contested borderlands more effectively than the official boundaries that delimit complex territorialities in the border region.

Dying Dreams in Tajikistan’s Global Borderland

Twenty-five years since the end of Tajikistan’s civil war in 1997, dreams and aspirations of international development and cross-border mobility in the country’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, colloquially called “the Pamirs,” have evaporated. Once the mountainous region was envisaged to have a prosperous postwar future ahead of it, with emerging trade links to China and Afghanistan, substantial funding from international nongovernmental organizations, and support from wealthy Muslim institutions. Today, as the Tajik government mounts a violent campaign to eradicate opposition, people in the Pamirs are surrounded by closed international borders and an ever-shrinking space in which to participate in Tajikistan’s politics and economy.

Labor Mobility, Gender Order and Family: Illustrated by the Example of the Karakachans in Bulgaria

The political changes in Bulgaria of November 1989 related to the fall of the totalitarian regime and the democratization of the country were accompanied by a severe economic crisis, a high level of unemployment and the rise of strong social inequality, which led to intensive migratory processes. The opening of the borders was followed by various forms of cross-border and transnational mobility affecting a significant part of the Bulgarian population. Since the very beginning of the 1990s, the Karakachans, due to the protectionist Greek policy with regards to them, as opposed to that regarding other Bulgarian citizens, acquired easy access to Greece visas. This enabled labor mobility which in only a few years spread across a significant number of the members of this community. For most of them, labor mobility turned out to be more than just a supplementary opportunity; it became a main strategy for realization in life. A direct result of the Karakachani’s labor mobility is periodic family separation for a certain time, which causes particular transformations in their social structures, and hence in the family life of labor migrants. It is this relationship between labor mobility and their life as lived, and its direct consequences on the family, that is the focus of the present study.

Food nationalism beyond tradition: Bubble tea and the politics of cross-border mobility between Taiwan and Vietnam

This paper looks at the expansion of the consumption of bubble tea in Hanoi, Vietnam, exploring the anxieties of overseas Taiwanese bubble tea entrepreneurs and examining the practices they employ to support their claims to produce authentic “Taiwanese” bubble tea. The case of bubble tea demonstrates that Taiwanese food nationalism has been constituted by bordering and de-bordering processes. The dynamic has made bubble tea a spatially blurred but symbolically distinct food for forging and sustaining Taiwanese culinary nationalism. From that, this paper aims to explore the relationship among tradition, food nationalism, and the sense of authenticity. Between spatial authenticity and the authenticity of processing techniques, therefore, lies an interface of bordering and mobility practices. A bordered food nationalism which defines bubble tea in reference to a spatially-fixed idea of Taiwan has been materialized, paradoxically, only through the cross-border movement of Taiwanese tea trees, tea leaves, tea manufacturers and tea processing know-how.

‘This is not a posted worker’ – short-term cross-border mobility of logistics workers and spatio-temporal dimensions of exploitation in the EU: evidence from the case law of the Court of Justice

AbstractSince the 2018 revision of the Posting of Workers Directive, the debate on posting has once again been heated. The spark comes particularly from disputes concerning cross-border mobility of highly mobile workers employed in transnational logistics services (Dobersberger, FNV, Rapidsped, and to a different extent Gruber and Samidani and AFMB). In this set of case law, the Court of Justice of the EU had to consider whether or not, and to what extent, the workers in question should be considered posted workers. Thus, the case law came to revolve around the spatial and territorial attributes, and the cross-border nature of the work performed. By resorting to the analytical tools provided by legal geography, and in particular to the concept of ‘chronotopes of law’ elaborated by Mariana Valverde, the aim of this piece is to reflect upon assumptions and implications of the aforementioned rulings with a view of discussing both structural and contingent elements that possibly favour exploitation of posted work in the transnational logistics industry.

Mobile phones at borders: logics of deterrence and survival in the Mediterranean Sea and Sonoran Desert

ABSTRACT Migrant death rates at international borders have risen sharply since the 1980s. Through archival research, we analyze the European Union’s and the United States’ international border infrastructures to illuminate how technological developments may have contributed to this spike in death rates. Based on an analysis of archival materials, we show how the mobile phone has emerged as an inadvertent identification technology at two border sites – the Mediterranean Sea and the Sonoran Desert – and how this technology supports survival in increasingly dangerous border-crossing experiences while also leading to death, detention, and deportation. We find that mobile phones have become identification technologies central to both migrants’ survival and border infrastructures’ attempts to deter cross-border mobility with profound consequences for human life and agency. We conclude with suggestions for future work to investigate reshaping border infrastructures in ways that do not rely on the galvanizing power of false and dangerous narratives of a symbolic Other.

The Global Demand for Migrant Care Workers: Drivers and Implications on Migrants’ Wellbeing

Background: Demographic changes across the globe create increasing demands for care labour mobility. The contribution of migrant workers to the long-term care (LTC) systems is not confined to the western world or countries that have already completed their ageing transitions; they also play an essential role in maintaining the care systems in countries with emerging ageing populations. Despite the increased demand for LTC services, such jobs remain unattractive with difficult working conditions and insecure prospects in most European countries and are only emerging in the Middle East. This paper explores factors affecting the demand for care mobility, reflecting on the experience of some OECD countries with already aged populations and countries in the Middle East, which are currently transitioning into aged populations. Methods: Conducting a statistical review of key ageing and LTC indicators, combined with a narrative review of relevant literature, the analysis considers the increased demand on migrant care labour. Drawing on a case study of the UK, where the immigration system is being reformed post-Brexit, we utilise In-depth interviews with 27 migrants working in LTC in the UK (2018–2020) to explore impacts on care workers’ wellbeing. Results: The findings show that both sets of countries draw on migrant workers as an essential source for LTC workforce supply to maintain and enhance the wellbeing of those receiving care in host societies. Meanwhile, care mobility creates care gaps in home countries, adversely affecting migrant workers’ wellbeing. Interview analysis with migrant care workers in the UK showed that such a process adversely affects migrants’ material and emotional wellbeing. Conclusion: The ability of migrants to move and work in different countries is shaped by several intersecting systems, including the host country’s immigration and welfare regimes. Migrants working in LTC are predominantly women who are usually motivated to work in care due to financial and social needs and usually maintain caring responsibilities across borders. Migrants employ their agency to navigate complex entry systems, settlement, or cross-border mobility to provide LTC in both formal and informal contexts. The implications on migrants’ wellbeing are considerable and should be addressed within a context of increased global mobility linked to ageing populations.

"There's so much more to that sinking island!"-Restorying migration from Kiribati and Tuvalu to Aotearoa New Zealand.

Many Pacific people are considering cross-border mobility in response to the climate crisis, despite exclusion from international protection frameworks. The 'Migration with dignity' concept facilitates immigration within existing laws but without host government support. Through the metaphor of Pacific navigation, we explore the role of dignity in the lives of I-Kiribati and Tuvaluans in Aotearoa New Zealand. Combining talanoa (pacific research method) with I-Kiribati and Tuvaluan community members, alongside critical community psychology and thematic analysis, we depict climate mobility as a wa or vaka moana (ocean-going canoes) journey. Participants are expert navigators, navigating immigration obstacles to (re)grow their roots in Aotearoa New Zealand beforecharting a course for future generations to thrive. They draw strength from culture and community to overcome the adversity of precarious living and visa non-recognition. Reconceptualising climate mobility through a Pacific lens imagines both dignity and cultural preservation as possible, despite the indignities and limitations of socio-political systems and protections for climate migrants.

Migration, Borders and “De-bordering” in Pandemic Times: Voices as Interlocution from Quarantine Ships in Italy

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected the configuration of border regimes worldwide, resulting in further selective restrictions to individual cross border mobilities. The Mediterranean space, where sea-crossings have been a structural part of migration for over two decades, has been targeted by multidimensional and transversal re-bordering policies: from externalization to search and rescue, from asylum to detention. The “unsafe harbour strategy” and the resulting implementation of offshore isolation, de facto detention, on quarantine ships were key components of these re-bordering policies. These strategies have prevented a number of potential refugees from accessing asylum, thereby reinforcing the so-called hotspot approach. Combining traditional qualitative research methods with digital ethnographic research on “quarantine ships” in Italy, this paper explores migrants' reactions and responses to border enforcement via offshore isolation. By focusing on the voices emerging from quarantine ships, and on the subsequent interlocution between different actors and stakeholders, we highlight the emergence of various forms, tools and strategies of debordering. These are the outcome of the ongoing interaction between confined migrants, civil society stakeholders and the “onshore” world. We eventually discuss the implications of these interlocutions for research on the interplay between bordering and de-bordering in migration management and control.

Revealing mobilities of people to understand cross-border regions: insights from Luxembourg using social media data

ABSTRACT The cross-border practices of people beyond migration and tourism are often overlooked. However, the increase of frequent social interactions and mobilities of people crossing country borders for work, shopping, services and leisure contribute to (re)shaping functional cross-border regions. We propose a conceptual framework using a big data approach to provide new insights from the individual-level cross-border mobility of people. We used Twitter data as a promising transnational data source to empirically examine who, when and where the borders are crossed in the case of Luxembourg – one of the busiest cross-border regions in Europe. Special attention has been given to cross-border commuters. We evaluated our findings to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach as the proof-of-concept for cross-border research. We mapped prospects and challenges to improve the operationalization of the proposed approach relevant to cross-border research and shared our source code to encourage further method development. Finally, we have highlighted how this information from social media data can benefit research and practice for policy and planning in cross-border regions.

Indigenous Border Migrants and (Im)Mobility Policies in Chile in Times of COVID-19.

The commodification of healthcare and the structural violence towards the migrant population in the Chilean system materialize in a series of structural barriers to accessing healthcare. In the face of this structural vulnerability, cross-border health mobility is one of the primary resources of indigenous border migrants living in the Tarapacá region (Chile). This involves crossing the border of both people (specialists/patients) and objects (such as ritual supplies or biomedicines), which play a crucial role as, in many cases, it is the only way to satisfy their healthcare needs. The security-orientated geopolitics of border closure (Plan Frontera Segura) has been reinforced by immobility policies linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. While doing so leaves people without the fundamental resource of healthcare mobility or obliges them to cross the border via unauthorized crossings, exposing them to criminalization and abuse by different agents of violence (the military, people smugglers, etc.). In this paper, we will offer a description of these processes of (im)mobility, analyzing their conformation both by the current policies of the Chilean State and by the notorious deficiency in indigenous and migrant rights, denouncing the material impact they have on the health/illness/care process of indigenous migrants.

Management of cross-border mobilities during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Europe and implications for public health provision to migrants

HighlightWhile many countries introduced border control measures to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, migrants on the move, like labour migrants and asylum seekers were trapped within the developing border politics. Here, we discuss how pre-existing gaps in international public health infrastructures have positioned migrants at a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2.

‘Losing complexes’: navigating technology, moral careers and mobility among disabled people in Kinshasa

AbstractIn moral careers of personhood and subjectivity of people who are mobility impaired, technologies such as mobility aids can become intertwined with teleologies of personal progress. This article examines how technologies shaped and expressed personal growth and social identity among those who took part in transnational trade between Kinshasa and Brazzaville. Engaging with a particular socio-technical environment facilitates both personal movement and cross-border mobility, and therefore becomes central to the ways in which individuals present themselves as ‘losing complexes’ – that is, their perceived frustrations about their disability. Exchanging a stick for a crutch or a hand-cranked tricycle for a wheelchair facilitates different forms of movement and expresses how one seeks to navigate between embarrassment, pride and respectability. Mobility aids thus serve as an index of different moments in moral careers of progress and decline, while their complementarity or incompatibility with public infrastructure is instrumental in creating and disaggregating social assemblages of disabled people. Through the rise and collapse of border trade between Kinshasa and Brazzaville, I discuss how crutches, cargo tricycles, wheelchairs and ferries shaped socialities and subjectivities over the long term. Considering the role of technology problematizes analyses of moral careers of personhood as attributed by others, drawing attention to personal agency and entanglement with a socio-technical environment.