Borders in Globalization
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Item BIG Summer Institutes: Program update - 2022(Borders in Globalization, 2022) Borders in GlobalizationThis year the Trade & Customs Borders Summer Institute took place from July 11th – 15th, 2022 at the University of Victoria. A total of 16 students registered from 11 different countries spanning every continent (excluding Antarctica) and we had a completion rate of 69%. Four participants from the World Customs Organization and one participant from the Canada Border Services Agency did not complete the requirements to receive their Professional Development Certifications. The purpose of this institute was to explore the regulatory environment of trading networks looking specifically at how these networks functionally redesign borders and the ways in which they influence customs policies and practices. We welcomed a variety of speakers who represented both academia and the policy world. This year we launched a new session on policy research. Designed by Claude Beaupre (University of Victoria), this session introduced students to the basics of research and presentation in the policy world and provided tips on how to meet the key elements that policy briefs must contain. Doug Band (Director General, Trade & Anti-Dumping Programs Directorate, CBSA), Shawn Hoag (Director General, Commercial Programs, CBSA), and Hubert Duchesneau (Research Associate, International Research Center on the International Relations of Canada and Québec and Retired Director, International Affairs, CBSA) spoke to the Canadian policy perspective while Geoffrey Hale (Professor, University of Lethbridge) provided the comparative perspective examining meso- and micro-policy development of border policies related to regulatory cooperation. Solomon Wong (President & CEO, InterVISTAS) focused his presentation on preclearance, border risk management, and the future and resiliency of borders and Thomas Cantens (Head of Research & Policy Unit, WCO) offered insight into how the mathematization of the border affects the public choice and the practices of civil servants. Alan Bersin (Belfer Center Fellow, Harvard University) and Peter Swatrz (Chief Science Officer, Altana_AI) finished the week off with a focus on the role machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science can play in trade and customs management.Item Borders in Globalization: Project update 2016-2017(Borders in Globalization, 2017) Borders in GlobalizationSince reporting on the first two years of our grant at the end of 2015, BIG has continued to implement its ambitious research agenda across all six areas of study. Nearing the end of 2017, we have over 130 research projects either completed or ‘in process’ thanks to our extensive partnerships with the public sector and universities across Canada and the globe, as well as strong participation from undergraduate and graduate students at all our partner institutions. I would like to briefly review what we have learned to date, then highlight some of our key activities, for which more details are provided in subsequent sections of this report, and conclude with BIG’s plans for the final years of the program.Item Borders in Globalization: Project update 2012-2015(Borders in Globalization, 2015) Borders in GlobalizationBIG was launched in the summer of 2013. The last 24 months have been very intense for all involved in the research program. We moved quickly onto establishing our Advisory Boards and focused in particular on getting feedback on our research assumptions and research strategy. We also worked hard at aligning research methodologies across all the areas of social science and humanities that are involved in the research program. We have active social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, which allow us to engage with interested stakeholders around the world.Item Cross border innovation economies: The Cascadia Innovation Corridor case(Border Policy Research Institute, 2019) Cappellano, FrancescoIn the recent literature on economic geography, cross-border regions have been highly heralded as potential sources for reaping the benefits of innovation (OECD, 2013). In fact, those regions have gained a reputation as being endowed with comparative advantages to compete in global markets (Vance, 2012). However, the types of processes that are occurring in the region, which act as hindrances (or barriers) to cross-border knowledge flows, have remained a significant but understudied topic in the academic literature. The same lack of understanding is widespread among the policy makers engaged in cross-border issues, specifically in terms of improved Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) management. This research project addresses this timely topic by evaluating the effects of the international border between Washington State, U.S. and British Columbia, Canada. This cross-border region, also known as 'Cascadia,' possesses a unique combination of assets, including human capital, universities, investments, and financial capital, that enable the cross-border region's innovation economy to compete globally (Andersen & Wenstrup, 2016). These assets have been supported by local public and private actors (Brunet-Jailly, 2008) and targeted innovation policies aimed at promoting the region as a world-class innovation hub. The object of this study is the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, a current innovation initiative in the region. I adopt a multidisciplinary approach to this case study, combining an economic geography perspective (different forms of proximity have been evaluated in the region), the border policy standpoint (governance implemented in the region) and a regional planning viewpoint (legacy of the Corridor and improvements to the overall strategy to strengthen the collaboration across the border). The research focuses on how tech economies are driving local economic development in Cascadia. This in-depth analysis pursues two goals, both of which are timely contributions to regional efforts: first, identifying the main drivers and hindrances affecting cross-border innovation linkages in the region; and second, developing policy recommendations that will support tighter cross-border economic cooperation. This project is based on primary data collected through a survey and interviews as well as secondary data gathered by official documents (e.g. Memorandum of Understanding further recalled), local newspapers and organizations' reports. The work empirically gauges the ongoing degree of economic interactions in Cascadia on both sides of the border, examining the networks that exist between organizations and actors involved in the cross-border ecosystem, as well as the missing links that impede stronger collaboration. The final part of the analysis digs into the regional planning practices in the cross-border context and establishes a set of policy recommendations targeted at the cross-border cooperation process in Cascadia. This analysis confirms that the Cascadia innovation ecosystem possesses the key assets needed to ensure long-term growth. Moreover, it sheds light on the role of multinational companies which play a pivotal role in the Cascadia innovation ecosystem, which in turn still appears very ii fragmented. The analysis of the hindrances confirms that transportation infrastructure represents a shortcoming for regional development. From a policy standpoint, the federal-level U.S. political climate does create a burden impacting the economic linkages across the border in Cascadia. Finally, the analysis suggests that the role of local (city) governments is advocated to be more efficient in creating 'horizontal' relationships across the border.Item Teleworking across the border: Insights from Cascadia(Border Policy Research Institute, 2023) Jakubowski, AndrzejThe COVID-19 Pandemic, supported by the rapid improvements in digital communication tools, has accelerated profound changes in how work is performed as millions worldwide started working remotely. Washington State and British Columbia were among the states/provinces with the highest percentage of people teleworking in the United States and Canada, respectively, mainly due to the developed industries of high technology, including the IT sector. However, as digital solutions allow for working from anywhere, they also boosted the rise of international virtual labor migration (cross-border telework), making labor mobility an even more diverse phenomenon. What remains an open question is whether telework enables a cross-border digital labor market and how work across borders transforms and alters cross-border economic linkages.Item Book Review: Unbuild walls: Why immigrant justice needs abolition(Borders in Globalization Review, 2025) Soupault, JulesUnbuild Walls: Why Immigration Justice Needs Abolition presents a vital account of abolitionist struggles in the United States, drawing on decades of organizing experience with Detention Watch Network (DNW).Item Book Review: Gender dynamics in transboundary water governance: Feminist perspectives on water conflict and cooperation(Borders in Globalization Review, 2025) Jha, KalpanaThe feminist perspective goes beyond treating gender as a single variable; it serves as a powerful analytical lens for understanding the complex social and political dynamics that shape relationships within and across societies. A key challenge for feminist scholars, however, is advancing feminism as a distinct and coherent worldview that fundamentally challenges the patriarchal logic of securitization, control, and territorial borders that dominate mainstream political thought.Item Introduction: European Union borders with Ukraine(Borders in Globalization Review, 2025) Brunet-Jailly, Emmanuel; Ocskay, Gyula; Ramírez, Martín Guillermo; Van der Velde, Martin; Shaban, TatianaThis special section, European Union Borders with Ukraine, provides a unique assessment of the understudied process of cross-border relationship-building that takes place between Ukraine, the European Union, and EU member states. Collectively, the six papers look at the progressive alignment of Ukraine with the Visegrad countries, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, and Ukraine, assessing the state of democratic and security concerns, regional development and education, healthcare, culture, and energy, as a multipronged way to understand cross-border integration and European integration.Item Letter of introduction(Borders in Globalization Review, 2025) Brunet-Jailly, EmmanuelChief Editor Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly introduces the new issue of BIG_Review.Item The United States–Canada security community: a case study in mature border management(Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 2021) Leuprecht, Christian; Hataley, Todd; Sundberg, Kelly; Cozine, Keith; Brunet-Jailly, EmmanuelCanada and the US The United States and Canada have a long tradition of bilateral and binational security coordination, cooperation and collaboration. This is evident in a vast and growing number of trans-governmental networks that facilitate and enable policy alignment and parallelism in defence, border security, intelligence and counter-terrorism. The security community has mastered coordination and cooperation. The US–Canada relationship is based on reciprocity. Despite its common cultural bedrock though, the US–Canada security community's hallmark is policy parallelism. Forms of mature collaboration remain limited and are only found on occasion. Partnerships have proven more successful in functional areas than in principled ones.Item YINTAH and recognition of Indigenous sovereignty(Borders in Globalization Review, 2025) Smallboy, JacobYINTAH (2024) is an Indigenous-made documentary that follows the decades-long battle of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation against the Coastal GasLink pipeline project, which seeks to expand through their traditional territory.Item The evolution of the customs profession and institution in Canada, 1988–2018: From Customs Inspector (CI) to Border Services Officer (BSO)(Borders in Globalization Review, 2025) Duchesneau, HubertThe policy paper From Customs Inspector to Border Services Officer discusses how significant political, economic, security, and migratory events of the 1988–2018 period have shaped Canadian border policies, significantly widening the scope of the Customs mandate and ultimately changing the nature of the border. The paper offers the unique perspective and insight of a seasoned border management practitioner, having served regionally as front line officer, nationally as director in policy roles, and internationally as Canada’s senior border services representative at the European Union (EU) in Brussels. It examines the transformation of the customs institution and culture as a result of the creation of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in 2003; and the arming of front line officers in 2006. Finally, the paper explores the evolution of the customs profession and its practices, notably how the recruitment and training of front line officers developed to support these institutional and cultural transformations.Item The role of cross-border cooperation in democracy promotion between Slovakia and Ukraine: The Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia) region(Borders in Globalization Review, 2025) Shaban, TatianaThis paper argues that cross-border cooperation practices stand as a vehicle of Ukraine’s bottom-up integration with the EU, ultimately helping to grow public trust in democratic governance in Ukraine. By looking at the case of cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and Slovakia, this paper shows how cross-border cooperation practices are developing between two neighbouring states and how mutual trust between the border communities and with their local and national authorities has been established across the border. The cross-border cooperation policy of the European Union is a reasonably new policy for Ukraine. Therefore, best practices established by the neighbouring EU states have been of great significance for Ukraine from both political and territorial perspectives, and in relation to the Ukrainian state’s progress towards integration into Europe.Item History and North American borderlands: Insights and approaches(University of Victoria, 2024) Widdis, Randy W.; Atkinson, David; Brunet-Jailly, Emmanuel; Takai, Yukari; Terrazas y Basante, Marcela; Nieto Camacho, Ana Lilia; Hogue, MichelBorders are historically contingent and evolve through processes of bordering. Their meanings are constantly changing along with political, economic, and social developments taking place both externally between and internally within states. Like borders, borderlands must also be situated in their temporal and geographical contexts in order to investigate the relations between territory, identity, and sovereignty. The chapters in this collection present selective historical interpretations of borders and borderlands that focus primarily on North American borderlands, emphasizing flows, sovereignty, and indigeneity, three key themes of the Borders in Globalization program.Item Erasing the Line: Mapping Indigenous Community across the US-Canada Border(2023-05-30) Herb, Guntram H.; Falardeau, Vincent; Talano, KathrynNorth American settler colonialism is not a historical event, but an ongoing process that strives to silence the continued presence of the original Indigenous inhabitants in the United States and Canada. The map, Erasing the Line, attempts to challenge the primacy of existing sovereign states by showing contiguous Indigenous community across the US–Canada border. This subversive visualization is inspired by nationalist maps and uses official census data to challenge the settler state narrative from within.Item A World Anthology of Border Poetry: Blurred and Political(University of Victoria, 2022) Sardzoska, Natasha; Brunet-Jailly, EmmanuelThis multilingual anthology presents the works of poets from around the world, showcasing the state of the art and distinct contributions of poetry to literary criticism and dissent. Beyond the social sciences and humanities, the book points to the importance of poetry for the fields of inquiry into borderlands and frontiers as intersectional and relational human experiences. The poems invite the reader to explore innovative approaches to reading and writing borders, those that transcend language within their conventional semiology of boundary transgression.Item Borders and Bordering in Atlantic Canada(2021-09-25) Konrad, Victor; Widdis, Randy W.; Brunet-Jailly, Emmanuel; Collins, Jeffrey F.; Hinton, Lucy; Ircha, Michael C.; Jagger, Jaiya; Musabende, Alice; Schnurr, Matthew A.Atlantic Canada and New England share a geography and history characterized by many commonalities yet also strong differences. This book explores the role of borders, bordering and borderlands in the emergence and evolution of Atlantic Canada, and its relationship with “others” including neighboring New England and migrants worldwide who have settled in the region. Borders at all scales, from the community level to that of nation-states, delineate areas of similarity and differentiate spaces of difference. Borders may be established by law and sustained by convention and practice, or borders may be ephemeral, maintained only for a brief time or a specific purpose. Their primary purpose is, and has been, to define and control territory, from perceived or real personal space to national and even supra-national boundaries (Elden 2013). In Atlantic Canada, borders operate and are evident at all levels from the neighborhoods and communities of cities like Halifax, counties and districts, provinces, groups of provinces—the Maritimes (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick), and with the addition of Newfoundland and Labrador—Atlantic Canada. On occasion, when common interests allow or call for it, the international region is bordered from other regions of the United States and Canada, and identified loosely as the Northeast or more recently “Atlantica”.Item Sex Trafficking at the Border: An Exploration of Anti-Trafficking Efforts in the Pacific Northwest(Social Sciences, 2019) Norfolk, Alexander; Hallgrimsdottir, HelgaThe prevalence of human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour in the Pacific Northwest has been well documented in recent years. This paper focuses specifically on trafficking for sex work across the British Columbia and Washington State border and seeks to determine whether the border is an effective instrument or tool for the identification and intervention of human trafficking for sex work. We provide an exploration of the legal frameworks and policies on either side of the border and offer an analysis of the cross-border anti-trafficking efforts carried out at the borderlands. The paper concludes that current mechanisms fail to appropriately address and combat the issue of cross-border sex trafficking for several reasons, including the following: a lack of uniform definitions of sex trafficking; the conflation of migrant sex work and sex trafficking, leading to misidentification at the border; and an emphasis on border security measures over victim support. Recommendations for enhanced responses are provided.Item Border and Migration Controls and Migrant Precarity in the Context of Climate Change(Social Sciences, 2019) Bates-Eamer, NicoleClimate change impacts natural and human systems, including migration patterns. But isolating climate change as the driver of migration oversimplifies a complex and multicausal phenomenon. This article brings together the literature on global migration and displacement, environmental migration, vulnerability and precarity, and borders and migration governance to examine the ways in which climate-induced migrants experience precarity in transit. Specifically, it assesses the literature on the ways in which states create or amplify precarity in multiple ways: through the use of categories, by externalizing borders, and through investments in border infrastructures. Overall, the paper suggests that given the shift from governance regimes purportedly based on protection and facilitation to regimes based on security, deterrence, and enforcement, borders are complicit in producing and amplifying the vulnerability of migrants. The phenomenon of climate migration is particularly explicative in demonstrating how these regimes, which categorize individuals based on why they move, are and will continue to be unable to manage future migration flows.