Bordercrossing in the Southern Cone

Abstract

One of the outcomes of scholarly attention to the processes of globalization and the formation of regional blocs such as the European Union (EU), NAFTA, and Mercosur/Mercosul is the relatively widespread belief that national borders are increasingly fluid. A number of recent trends have challenged the self-contained autonomy of the nation-state and focused on large population flows and the expanding recognition of the universal rights of individuals over rights deriving from the citizenship of a particular nation-state. Yet national borders remain sites and symbols of conflicts, tension, and marked differences. In this regard, in Argentina and the Southern Cone: Neoliberalism and National Imaginations, Alejandro Grimson and Gabriel Kessler argue that

Assuming that macroeconomic “integration processes” have direct, immediate effects on the cultures involved is to lose sight of the preexisting historical and political dimension, as well as of the differentiated social interests and strong feelings of belonging of the people living along any given border. (2005: 22)