Abstract
Border Lives starts with the story of a border crosser, Rámon. Rámon’s story of negotiating the border to secure a livelihood for himself and his family sets the stage for understanding Sergio Chávez’s complex thesis. Rámon’s access to the border not only changes over the course of his life, revealing the multiple structural factors that affect access to the border, but he also is a key example of stepwise migration, because after Rámon secures legal residency (e.g., a Green Card) in the United States he returns to settle permanently in Tijuana using the privileged status to cross the border for work. Taking a deep look into the lives of individuals like Rámon whose lives are at the border, including fronterizos (people of northern Mexico ‘with and without U.S. experience’; p. 25), transnational migrants, and commuters, Chavez takes care to examine the tension among structural forces, the agency of respondents, and contemporary political discourse concerning the US–Mexico border. One of the ways this is accomplished is through highlighting how the ‘social closure,’ as Max Weber coined it (i.e., exclusive access to resources based on social status), creates structural limitations but also new opportunities and resources for borderland communities that allow individuals to reconstruct their livelihoods, goals, and desires (p. 5). Although previous scholarship on the US–Mexico border has examined structural limitations and opportunities, it has also posited border lives as seemingly transient. Chávez’s impressive ethnographic analysis adds to the literature by demonstrating that the borderland becomes a new home where individuals must construct their lives binationally both socially and economically.
Tijuana, ‘the city of migrants,’ is the site for an ethnography where Chávez spent 17 months in the field and conducted 158 interviews (118 with commuters and 40 with noncommuters). The findings highlight how people negotiate being binational and are able to build successful livelihoods in spite of rising border enforcement. The researcher uncovers two main types of border residents: (1) commuters or those who live in Mexico but cross the border to work in the United States; and (2) migrants or those who settle in Tijuana (pp. 24–25). The author unveils the impact of different political and economic contexts on the agency and opportunities for commuters and migrants through interviews with a broad range of respondents in given time periods including the Bracero Period, Open-Border Period, Post-IRCA Period, and Post-Gatekeeper Period.
Although the succeeding chapters detail the different relationships with the border, the social, political, and economic context created during these different periods remains integral to the analysis. For instance, Chapter 2 illustrates the ways in which ex-braceros were able to negotiate and reinvent themselves at the border. The author notes how one group of ex-braceros (urban workers) were able to take advantage of the growing economy in Tijuana as a result of the exchange between people on both sides of the border whereas the other group (cross-border farmworkers) were able to work in the United States and reside in Mexico. For instance, urban workers found opportunities as taxi drivers, mechanics, ice cream vendors, and taco vendors due to the demand of those crossing the border or working in factories. Another unique finding in Chapter 2 reveals the changes in social context over time through the role growers played in assisting cross-border farmworkers in obtaining work, being able to cross the border, and/or obtain legal documentation.
Chapter 3 highlights a new finding that adds to the literature on migration. Chávez finds that respondents engage in what he terms ‘stepwise return migration’ (pp. 67–68), in which people migrate in a series of steps with the goal of reaching a final international destination with better employment opportunities, although the destination that many choose to settle in is a border town. The United States is not the final international destination but rather a step in order to gain access to privileges (such as Border Crossing Cards [BCCs] or Green Cards) that allow for crossing the border and leading binational lives in Tijuana. Chapter 4 highlights the tools needed to cross the border before and after 1994’s Operation Gatekeeper, which effectively closed the border through increasing surveillance, ending clandestine border crossings, and sanctioning border crossing for the explicit intention of working in the United States. Before Gatekeeper, gaining knowledge from those who lived at the border was key, because those at the border had a ‘cultural toolkit’ about what worked and what didn’t. For instance, they knew how to detail ties to growers or how to ‘pass.’ Chávez recounts a story by a respondent where a border resident suggested he dress in workout clothes, jogging on the beach, and smile and wave to border personnel as one way to casually cross the border. After Gatekeeper, however, there was a major shift. Whereas previously work connections had been an asset to crossing the border, they were now a liability. Being caught with any sign that as a Mexican resident you were crossing to work would result in a denial of privileges to cross the border. The ‘cultural toolkit’ shifted as well as the ‘impression management’ needed to cross the border. Now border crossers needed to go through a long, expensive process of gaining a BCC and needed to be ready to prove that they were crossing the border as a consumer and not a worker. Carrying extra cash or receipts was key as well as hiding uniforms.
Chapter 5 adds an additional layer to understanding the border and investigates the role of social networks. In particular, Chávez uncovers a crucial unintended consequence of waiting in long lines at the border, which is that queuing in long lines served to foster new binational social networks. These networks become the conduit through which information on how to access BCCs and locations of possible employment across the border flowed. As a result the border itself works as a social space where information and social networks challenge its maintenance. In sum, these chapters detail how political and economic policies affect the lived realities of people at the border. Despite stark differences in their ability to cross the border, individuals are able to share resources that improve their lives by challenging the politics of the border.
Chávez’s in-depth analysis of the border sheds light on a topic with relevance not only for the sociology of migration and studies on global and transnational relations, but also for contemporary political debates. One of his most significant findings is stepwise return migration, in which migrant workers prefer to return to reside in a border town. The analysis challenges contemporary understandings of the border by highlighting not only the hardships but also the agency of those who are able to negotiate the border in multiple ways and at times even use it to their advantage. The border itself is recognized as a place of opportunity and a destination for stepwise migration. It is a home where people define themselves binationally in part due to their connections and experiences as binational workers and consumers.
Although I cannot convey enough respect for the astounding fieldwork Chávez conducted and his outstanding analysis, there is one major area left to explore that he was not able to fully address (Chávez himself acknowledges this limitation: see appendix). His account of negotiating the border was almost entirely the story of men’s negotiation and experience. This means we have yet to uncover how women’s lives are restricted by the border, and how (or if) they are able to reinvent themselves and capitalize on the border in the same ways identified in this study. On the one hand, this is a significant limitation to the study; on the other, the depth and breadth of men’s experience Chávez was able to obtain will allow future researchers to thoroughly compare the border lives of women. In that way, this research is a major asset and paves the way for further research that can highlight the role gender plays in the border lives of women. Future research might ask: What migration patterns are employed by women at the border? How have women negotiated (and continued to negotiate) access to cross the border? What social, political, and economic barriers and opportunities do women face as a result of these border policies?
In the end, this work is a ‘must read’ for researchers in Latino/a studies, transnational/global relations, migration studies, and sociologists interested in an in-depth understanding of the relationship between structure and agency. It also has the potential to be an informative piece for students of gender studies through our recognition that it highlights the experiences of men and leaves room for future research to investigate how these structures (political, economic, and social) affect the lived realities of women and the way women utilize and define their agency.