La Strada Documentation Center

Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries of Belonging in Post-Wall Europe. A Gender Lens

Document number
2196
Date
2008
Title
Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries of Belonging in Post-Wall Europe. A Gender Lens
Author/publisher
Mirjana Morokvasic
Availability
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Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Migrant rights; Migration management; Comprehensive approach to migration; Migration policy; Restrictive migration measures, Irregular Migration, Feminization of migration, Economic migration, Labour migration, Free movement, Undocumented migrants; Undocumented labour;
Summary
Borders and boundaries are central to states and their nations. Physically marked borders as well as imagined communities (Anderson 1991) and their limes - boundaries are the frame for the praxis/management exercised by the state authorities on both sides. They are also the frame for the usage of the border and related boundaries by the local and by more distant populations. In this text the focus will be on the latter, although it is clear that the usage will be very much related to and affected by, not to say determined by, the state bordermanagement regimes, which change over time and were undergoing a radical change from the early nineties on. I want to explore how, with the change of the nature of borders, the practice of the border was modified or adopted as a completely new tool in improving one's social, political and economic condition. For people who used to live behind the iron curtain, crossing that border was impossible or entailed high risks that only a few could take or were prepared to take for the sake of an opportunity that was always beyond the border, on the other side.
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