Re-Framing The U.S.-Mexico Border: A Non-Profit Educational Erogram On Border And Migration Issues

Abstract

This article explores the work of a binational non-profit organization that offers travel seminars designed to educate U.S. citizens about the social, economic, and political realities of the U.S.-Mexico border through direct interactions in border communities. These educational trips offer a unique opportunity to explore individuals’ perceptions of the U.S.-Mexico border and undocumented migration, as those perspectives are developed and revised through personal experience. This article examines the ways in which the organization and its participants describe the U.S.-Mexico border region- its physical, social, and political landscapes- as well as border residents and migrants. Contextualized within wider national debates on the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration, participants’ narratives suggest the possibility of an alternate social imagination of the relationships between U.S. and Mexican states and residents.