Border Paradox : Striking a Balance between Access and Control in Asymmetrical Border Settings

Abstract

The rhetoric concerning globalization and a borderless world depicts political borders as relicts from the past. Although in the dynamics of globalization borders create constraints for interaction, their functions as filters and denotations of difference have remained imperative. This article sheds light on the opportunities and constraints created by borders. By focusing on two asymmetrical yet increasingly integrated border settings, the Finnish-Russian and the United States-Mexican, this paper examines how the rhetoric concerning globalization on the one hand and the discourses of securitization and demarcation on the other are reflected on the practicalities in these border areas. Based on empirical material collected from the border areas in question, the article puts forth that even the same border is seen in a very different light at different levels and that a workable balance ought to be found between different interests as well as between access and control.