Mexico-United States Border Region Research Articles

Economic Convergence in the Mexico-United States Cross-border Region: A Post-crisis Analysis 2010–2019

ABSTRACT This research aims to estimate the σ and β convergence hypotheses for the period following the 2008 crisis (2010–2019) in the states of the Mexico-United States border region. The objective is to determine whether the disparities in per capita income have decreased during that period. Panel and spatial panel methodologies are employed to confirm the β-convergence hypotheses, taking into account heterogeneity, spatial dependence, and the endowment of human capital as conditioning factors. The σ-convergence is estimated using standard deviation. The results indicate the presence of σ-convergence and conditional β-convergence. However, a higher endowment of human capital does not necessarily lead to increased convergence rates due to existing differences between the two economies. In conclusion, there is a need to formulate public policies in Mexico that promote educational attainment among the population residing in the northern border region.

Perceived barriers to pre-exposure prophylaxis use and the role of syndemic factors among female sex workers in the Mexico-United States border region: a latent class analysis

ABSTRACTFemale sex workers (FSWs) experience syndemic factors (e.g., polydrug use, hazardous alcohol consumption, client-perpetrated violence, depression, and sexually transmitted infections) that often heighten vulnerability to HIV and limit healthcare utilization. We hypothesized that syndemic factors will limit FSWs’ uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). From 2016 to 2017, 295 HIV-negative FSWs were enrolled in a behavioral HIV prevention trial in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, underwent STI testing, and completed surveys on syndemic factors and perceived barriers to PrEP use. Syndemic scores (0–5) were calculated by summing syndemic factors. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify homogeneous classes with respect to perceived barriers to PrEP use. We identified four classes: (1) perceived healthcare access barriers (8.3%), (2) perceived financial barriers (18.7%), (3) high level of perceived barriers (19.9%), and (4) low level of perceived barriers (53.0%) to PrEP use. Those experiencing three (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 3.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.24–10.67) and four or five (aOR = 6.30, 95% CI = 1.70–23.35) syndemic factors had a higher odds of membership in the class characterized by a high level of perceived barriers than in the class characterized by a low level of perceived barriers. Addressing syndemic factors may maximize PrEP’s impact among FSWs along Mexico’s northern border.

Factors in the HIV risk environment associated with bacterial vaginosis among HIV-negative female sex workers who inject drugs in the Mexico-United States border region

BackgroundBacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common cause of vaginitis among women worldwide and is associated with increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. We aimed to determine the impact of the HIV risk environment on BV among female sex workers who inject drugs (FSW-PWIDs) in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional analysis utilizing baseline data from a randomized controlled trial evaluating a behavioral HIV prevention intervention. Participants underwent testing for BV using the OSOM BVBlue® Rapid Test (Genzyme Diagnostics, San Diego, CA) and completed a survey eliciting information on the HIV risk environment, sexual risk behaviors, and substance use. We applied logistic regression to identify correlates of BV in the physical, social, economic, and political HIV risk environments stratified by study site (Ciudad Juarez vs. Tijuana).ResultsIn total, 584 HIV-negative FSW-PWIDs (300 Ciudad Juarez; 284 Tijuana) were enrolled. The prevalence of BV was 39% (n = 228), which was higher in Ciudad Juarez (56.7%) compared to Tijuana (20.4%). In both cities, micro-level components of the physical HIV risk environment were associated with BV. In Ciudad Juarez, BV was associated with past experiences or threats of physical violence in response to proposed condom use (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 3.66, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.74–7.69, p = 0.001) and lifetime residence in Ciudad Juarez (aOR = 1.74, 95% CI: 1.05–2.87, p = 0.031). In Tijuana, BV was associated with the number of hours spent on the street daily in the past six months looking for, using, or dealing drugs, engaging in other income generating activities, or sleeping (aOR = 1.05, 95% CI: 1.001–1.097, p = 0.045).ConclusionsOur findings suggest that FSW-PWIDs’ risk of BV may be shaped by the microphysical HIV risk environment. Addressing components of the physical risk environment, including interventions to reduce gender-based violence, may alleviate the burden of BV and subsequent susceptibility to HIV/STIs among FSW-PWIDs in the Mexico/US border region.Trial registrationNational Institute of Health (NIH) Clinical Trials Identifier NCT00840658, and date of NIH trial registration February 7, 2009.

Cross-border Mobility and Clandestine Practices: Scenarios of Violence in the Mexico-United States Border Region

This article analyzes the changes in the clandestine component of various cross-border mobility strategies of the population in three cities on the Mexico-United States border: Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and Matamoros. The clandestine component results not just from a lack of documents but also from the rules for their use and people's reasons for crossing, producing its own social hierarchization in this border space. Border residents, like those who travel long distances to cross the border to find work, also cross employing subterfuge in order to use their tourist visas to work or move drugs. The context of violence in which these movements occur affects people's lives as the violence of the state and that of criminal actors involved in the smuggling of drugs and people intersect. This work provides a broad panorama of clandestine practices in the border region, demonstrating that alliances of, and coordinated actions by activists, policymakers, and governments are needed to minimize the impact of migrati...

Iniciativas de planificación territorial transfronteriza en Matamoros-Brownsville (México-Estados Unidos)

AbstractCross-border regional planning is a recent phenomenon, which its first initiatives date back to 1960s. Currently some experiences have been conducted, most of them in Europe. The weak development of this phenomenon lies on the obstacles and limitations that it has to deal with. Those obstacles derive from the asymmetries between the political and administrative systems, urban and spatial policies, land planning and land uses, etc. on each side of an international border. In a great extent, cross-border planning has been theoretically approached from an institutional construction perspective. However, in this research it has been adopted the symbolic regional construction perspective that allows to analyze cross-border regional planning through spatial imaginaries. In this sense, crossborder planning is understood as a result of the interaction between regional actors and the social constructed values and meanings (geographical, cultural, social, economic, historical, etc.) given to border and cross-border regions. This investigation pursues, in first place, to determine the spatial imaginaries on which cross-border planning is constructed and, at the same time, the spatial imaginaries that cross-border planning reproduces; in second place, to determine in which way cross-border planning contributes to deactivate the border (deborder) or, on the contrary, to reproduce and reinforce the spatial differentiation process (the process by which two contiguous national or bordered spaces build spatial discontinuities as a way to distinguish of each other). To achieve these objectives, it has been conducted a content analysis based on the documentation of the spatial and urban planning and of the cross-border initiatives from a case study area; a direct observation of an ongoing cross-border initiative; and interviews to key informants (planning agencies and other organizations related to cross-border initiatives).In the Mexico-United States border region some initiatives of this kind have been carried on, particularly between cross-border conurbations (Tijuana-San Diego, Ciudad Juárez-El Paso, etc.). One cross-border conurbation has been selected: Matamoros, Tamaulipas and Brownsville, Texas. There six initiatives have been carried on since late 1960s: Urban development bi-national planning program (1968), Binational 2020 Land Use and Transportation Plan (1997-99), Binational Transportation Focus Group (2002), Laguna Madre Binational Initiative (1998-2000), Bi-National Economic Development Zone (BI-NED Zone) (2011-…), and Lower Rio Grande Valley-Tamaulipas Border Master Plan (2013). All of them present some particularities based on their objectives and function, participant local and regional actors, the planning phase, and their results. Despite differences, they show a common feature: the existence of a shared set of spatial topics of interest, like transportation and infrastructures, land uses in adjacent border spaces, and regional development. These six initiatives are not isolated from the ongoing local, national and binational spatial debates, but they have been carried on in parallel with some other binational processes (such as NAFTA and NAAEC), planning and construction of new international bridges, elaboration of urban plans in one or both cities, and confluence with conjectural economic development opportunities. In all of these initiatives the border is deactivated and, simultaneously, the spatial differentiation is reproduced. That can be observed in the objects and spatial dynamics that are subject to planning, the spatial distribution of land uses across the boundary, and the objectives and participant actors of cross-border planning processes. Finally, four main spatial imaginaries have been identified: the “other side” and the cross-border dimension; economic development and crossborder transportation infrastructures; the divergent spatial distribution of land uses according to the boundary; and the United States as a main reference.

Social and clinical predictors of drug-resistant tuberculosis in a public hospital, Monterrey, Mexico

PurposeDrug-resistant tuberculosis (DRTB) is steadily increasing in Mexico, but little is known of patient risk factors in the Mexico–United States border region. This preliminary case-control study included 95 patients with active pulmonary TB with drug susceptibility results attending the José E. González University Hospital in the urban hub of Nuevo León—the Monterrey Metropolitan Area. We report potential social and clinical risk factors of DRTB among this hospital-based sample. MethodsWe collected data through face-to-face interviews and medical record reviews from 25 cases with DRTB and 70 drug-sensitive controls. DNA was collected to assess an effect of genetic ancestry on DRTB by using a panel of 291,917 genomic markers. We calculated crude and multivariate logistic regression. ResultsAfter adjusting for potential confounding factors, we found that prior TB treatment (odds ratio, 4.5; 95% confidence interval, 0.9–21.1) and use of crack cocaine (odds ratio, 4.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.1–18.7) were associated with DRTB. No other variables, including genetic ancestry and comorbidities, were predictive. ConclusionsHealth care providers may benefit from recognizing predictors of DRTB in regions where routine drug susceptibility testing is limited. Prior TB treatment and illicit drug use, specifically crack cocaine, may be important risk factors for DRTB in this region.

“Living Together Without Being Married”: Perceptions of Female Adolescents in the Mexico-United States Border Region

This is a study of the Mexico-United States Border female youth’s perceptions about “living together without being married” as an alternative in the process of family formation and as a new modality of intimate relationships of youth in their transition to adulthood. We analyze the case of working class females between 15-18 years old residing in Tijuana, Mexico, and in San Diego County, California. This comparative analysis focuses on individual, cultural, gender, institutional, and community factors shaping youth perceptions between two groups of Mexican-origin youth residing on different sides of the border but sharing the same family culture roots. The study uses information from fifteen focus groups conducted with female students from two of the largest public high schools in Tijuana and three public high schools in San Diego. Among the findings, we observe interesting differences between these two groups of young women. Latino adolescents in San Diego prefer to use the concept of cohabitation when referring to the idea of “living together without being married.” This type of relationship forms part of the process of growing up. Tijuana girls, however, prefer to use the concept of consensual union. This term mixes the traditional Mexican consensual union with some traces of the modern concept for cohabitation. The traditional meaning tends to dominate the “idea of living together without being married” among Tijuana girls.

Simulation of host-parasite-landscape interactions: influence of season and habitat on cattle fever tick ( Boophilus sp.) population dynamics in rotational grazing systems

Explicit consideration of spatial and temporal factors regulating host-parasite-landscape interactions is basic to understanding systems perspectives for the management of animal parasites. A simulation model of cattle fever tick, Boophilus annulatus and B. microplus, population dynamics on rangelands of the northeastern Mexico-United States border region was modified to examine spatial and temporal dynamics of ticks in rotational grazing systems. Five short-duration grazing rotations in an eight-pasture system were evaluated on rangeland landscapes dominated by uncanopied grass, mesquite canopied grass and mixed-brush canopied grass. Infestations of the grazing system were initiated by introducing infested cattle in either fall or spring. Grazing system infestations in mesquite and mixed brush canopied grass persisted longer than those in uncanopied grass and were characterized by more frequent reinfestations of both pastures and cattle over the two-year simulations. Infestations initiated in fall were generally of longer duration than those initiated in spring due in part to longer incubation periods for tick eggs. Temporal dynamics of infestations by pasture were evaluated numerically and graphically. These analyses show that gaps and discontinuities of infestations within individual pastures over the course of the fall- and spring-initiated simulations reflect host-parasite-landscape interactions affecting tick distribution and survival.

Simulation of host-parasite-landscape interactions: influence of season and habitat on cattle fever tick ( Boophilus sp.) population dynamics

Integration of temporal and spatial factors controlling host-landscape interactions is essential to development of systems perspectives important to the management of animal parasites. A simulation model based upon factors regulating distribution and population dynamics of cattle fever ticks, Boophilus annulatus and B. microplus, on rangelands of the Northeastern Mexico-United States border region was found to reasonably represent interactions of season and habitat type. Three submodels represent tick development on cattle, tick development in the environment, and cow movement among three different habitat types. Simulated populations in grass tended to be smaller but with more abrupt peaks than those in mesquite and mixed-brush canopied habitats. Three generations were produced in grass from infestations beginning in January. Generations were less well marked in mesquite and mixed-brush due to the comparatively extended survivorship of larvae in these habitats. Sensitivity analysis of host-larvae encounter rate showed the model to be highly sensitive to this variable when all other factors are constant and demonstrated that utilization of a landscape by host animals is a powerful determinant in Boophilus population dynamics.

Del rancho de la Tía Juana a Tijuana : una breve historia de desarrollo y población en la frontera norte de México

"Tijuana has been the most extraordinary example of the modern demographic history of the [Mexican] northern border. This article is an essay on the economic, social, and demographic development of this important urban center during this century. Its purpose is two fold. On the one hand, to understand Tijuana's general population change in light of a unique socioeconomic development in the country, which has been characterized by a close dependence on the United States as well as by the creation of several federal programs aimed [at integrating] the natural economies. On the other hand, to introduce the discussion of the Mexico-United States border region to the non-specialist in this field." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

The nature and significance of transborder cooperation in the Mexico‐U.S. borderlands: Some empirical evidence

Mexico-United States border region is a meeting place, a transition zone between two great civilizations. Numerous studies have highlighted the many interdependencies that exist between the Mexican and U.S. borderlands. Some critics have emphasized the threat that inexpensive Mexican labor represents to workers on the U.S. side. Others, emphasizing the economic disparities between the Mexican and U.S. sides, have argued that asymmetric interdependence has in fact placed the Mexican side in an unfavorable state of dependency. dependency issue also arises in terms of cultural relations. In particular, much has been made of the inroads that U.S.-influenced values, expressions, and models of consumption have made among the people of the frontera norte . In view of the differences in living standards between the United States and Mexico, as well as the history of U.S. interference in Mexico's internal affairs, it can easily be understood why dependency is an important issue in Mexico. Nevertheless, the eminent Mexican scholar, Victor Urquidi (1979:27) has forcefully argued that The only area where there is perhaps a balanced mutual dependence is along the 2,000 miles of the fairly open U.S.-Mexico A way of life has developed there that benefits inhabitants and businesses on both sides of the border.