The War(s) this Time: Drug Economies and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Border

• In Event: 469 - Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. The Remaking of the U.S.-Mexico Border

Abstract

Recent data on migration demonstrates that the expanding drug war in Mexico, and drug trafficking organizations, colloquially dubbed the “narcos” or “cartels,” have figured heavily in the experiences of immigration to the U.S. In Mexico and Central America. But the links between migration and the drug economy span far beyond these recent wars – and reach deep into the history of immigration and drug policy n the U.S. How can we make sense of these contemporary and historical relationships among flows of migrant labor, drugs, and capital along the U.S.-Mexico border? What do these mean for sociological understandings of the production of immigration policy, and for the ways in which scholars understand the impact of the drug and security situation in Mexico on migration flows? To untangle these relationships, this paper offers a recuperative political-economic history, charting the intersections of the U.S. “war” on marijuana and immigration flows. I utilize secondary source literature, contemporary media sources and government data to understand the implications and intersection of U.S. drug policy with the ways in which particularly migration from Mexico has been understood, discussed and policed. These analyses broaden the deep entanglements among social constructions of race, migration and criminality and the ways in which these discursive and material connections have impacted everyday lives at the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and beyond for nearly a century.

Author

• Robert Chlala, University of Southern California