Journal article
Air Mobilities on the U.S.-Caribbean Border: Open Skies and Closed Gates
The communication review (Yverdon, Switzerland), v 13(4)
01 Jan 2010
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
The convergence of intensive human mobilities, offshore financial flows, and new forms of border surveillance make the Caribbean a crucial region in which to study how emerging forms of electronic data, mobile communication, and information flow are respatializing borders. The growth of tourism, the opening of free trade zones, and the expansion of transmigration between the United States and the Caribbean are one side of the picture of mobility in the region. On the other side, we find a grimmer panorama: the ongoing Cuban trade embargo, the problems of drug and gun smuggling, illegal immigration, and the continuing deaths of Haitian refugees at sea. In this article the author presents a preliminary model for understanding the contested mobility regimes along the U.S.-Caribbean "Third Border," envisioned as an uneven and multifaceted space of connectivity and barriers that is currently undergoing complex transformations, both material and rhetorical. It draws on empirical examples and photographs of recent travel to Haiti, in particular, to highlight some of the disparities in Caribbean travel. The analysis shows how the Caribbean region is currently undergoing reconfigurations of territory, sovereignty, and material infrastructure that are informed by rhetorics of "open skies" and open trade (liberalization) which claim to increase mobility, but are in fact associated with material practices of border securitization and increased immobility, including refugee interception, migrant detention, and the militarization of air space.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Air Mobilities on the U.S.-Caribbean Border: Open Skies and Closed Gates
- Creators
- Mimi Sheller - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- The communication review (Yverdon, Switzerland), v 13(4)
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 20
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Sociology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000217637600002
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-79960150776
- Other Identifier
- 991019167950304721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Communication