Tensions dans la sécurité frontalière : entre sécurité étatique et insécurité économique locale

Abstract

Security concerns at the U.S./Mexico border started in the 1970s and have been reinforced on a continual basis since the 1990s. The border town of Douglas, Arizona, is no exception. At the end of the 1990s, a barrier was built to separate Douglas from its Mexican sister city, Agua Prieta, Sonora. If the aim was to stop irregular migrations and drug trafficking, it actually resulted in disturbing the transborder connectedness and the border residents’ way of life. This article will thus focus on the border residents’ representation of security. Are the security measures accepted by the border residents? What is the impact of these security measures on the historical transborder cooperation? Do security measures bring insecurity? Thanks to interviews conducted in Douglas and Agua Prieta between 2017 and 2020, we will analyze the definitions that border residents give to border security, enhancing the tensions – that have been reinforced by COVID-19 – between the federal definition and the local definition of security. For border residents, border security means preserving their binational life, preserving the binational economic ties and preserving human security by focusing on the roots of migration.

Keywords

• border
• Security
• insecurity
• barrier
• U.S. / Mexico