[New Release] Boundary as a Method

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] # While undergoing departure inspection to return to his home country, a civil war caused by a coup d'?tat broke out in his nation. All visas and conditions were suspended. In an instant, his nationality was nullified, and both his homeland and any other country disappeared. He was left alone in the 'stateless' space of the airport terminal. There, he had to begin another life for survival. This is a scene from the 2004 film The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks.

# There is a family in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa who applied for refugee status to escape war. They applied for refugee status for literal 'survival,' but typically it takes about two years for approval. During this long period, they officially exist in a place that is neither their home country nor their destination country. The place they are in could be a shelter or waiting area for asylum seekers, or somewhere in society as undocumented immigrants and illegal workers.

Looking at the world map, there are countless boundaries that distinguish countries. These divisions are products of modernity and are deeply connected to imperialism. After the Cold War ended and globalization surged, it seemed these boundaries might soon disappear, but recently we have often witnessed that they have instead transformed and expanded.

The book Border as Method deals with how these boundaries existing worldwide today are confirmed in political, economic, and social contexts. According to the co-authors Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neilson, the 'trapped' terminal where Tom Hanks was confined and the 'somewhere' where the African refugee family stays are all borders. From the authors' perspective, the border begins the moment migrants attempt to move away from danger in their home countries. Now, borders are not on maps but at airport immigration checkpoints.

Borders are no longer just lines. Borders include time and space. For someone, an immigration checkpoint passed in 10 seconds with an electronic passport can be extended into weeks or months of smuggling across the Mediterranean or the Yellow Sea on a motorboat from the Somali coast. For others, it can be years of waiting to determine whether they can become a member of a country, and it can be everywhere they 'exist.'

The authors argue that the image of a 'borderless world' can no longer explain our world. According to this book, borders are spreading and multiplying more than ever in history. The past 20 years of globalization have resulted not in the reduction but the expansion of borders. In 2019, Trump’s wall was built targeting 'illegal immigrants' in Mexico. After the COVID-19 pandemic, 'vaccine nationalism' has risen in countries worldwide. Today, borders are firm and even show signs of strengthening.

The authors clearly state that the claim that 'borders are spreading' is different from saying that nation-states are returning or that nation-states are unaffected by globalization. Nation-states today are organized in ways different from the past and take different forms. One of the core characteristics of current globalization processes is the continuous reshaping of different geographical scales. To understand these changes, not only borders but also social, cultural, political, and economic divisions must be explored. A new perspective on borders is needed.

The authors argue that dividing the earth into north and south, east and west, or classifying the world into the First, Second, and Third Worlds to evaluate each country's conditions is an outdated method. Starting from the image of a map divided by clear lines cannot help us understand the modern world. It is not difficult to witness that some metropolitan areas in the wealthiest countries of the world are in 'Third World'-like conditions.

The authors claim that the proliferation of borders continuously divides and connects the earth into heterogeneous time-spaces, and the divisions of labor and hierarchies that characterize capitalist labor organization have also widely spread. Especially in Chapter 4, The Figures of Labor, they analyze the contemporary labor archetypes of care workers and financial transaction workers, exploring in depth the borders that connect and divide them.