Border monuments: memory, counter-memory, and (b)ordering practices along the US-Mexico border

Immigrant deaths have increased in recent years due to changes in border enforcement practices, yet less attention has been paid to the memorialisation of undocumented immigrants who die crossing the US-Mexico border. This article explores the ordering mechanisms of statecraft through an examination...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of international studies 2013-04, Vol.39 (2), p.291-311
Main Author: AUCHTER, JESSICA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Border patrol
Border security
Border walls
Borders
Boundaries
Cemeteries
Immigrants
Immigration
International relations
Memorials & monuments
Memory
Migrants
Monuments
Narratives
Noncitizens
Political representation
Politics
Resistance
Threats
Undocumented Immigrants
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Summary:Immigrant deaths have increased in recent years due to changes in border enforcement practices, yet less attention has been paid to the memorialisation of undocumented immigrants who die crossing the US-Mexico border. This article explores the ordering mechanisms of statecraft through an examination of how the dead bodies of undocumented migrants pose a resistance to these mechanisms. I first lay out my conception of statecraft and the bordering practices involved in this specific context, then address the memorialisation of undocumented immigrants who lost their lives crossing the border. The article embarks on a journey through anonymous desert gravesites and small desert cemeteries haunted by the spectres of immigration. It explores the contestation surrounding memorialisation of death through the monument, the narratives of anonymity surrounding the memorialisation of undocumented immigrants, and the counter-memory discourses that emerge in an effort to rewrite the meaning of these migrant deaths. These counter-memorial discourses, I argue, posit desert border monuments as a threat to statecraft because they cannot be situated within the (b)ordering mechanisms of the state.
ISSN:0260-2105
1469-9044
DOI:10.1017/S0260210512000174