BIG Talk – It’s more than just the zipcode: It’s about how one’s access to reproductive services is impacted by various levels of border walls

with Andréanne Bissonnette (Postdoctoral Fellow, Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University) | Victoria, BC & Zoom | September 26, 2023

In Person: CFGS C168 (Sedgewick building, University of Victoria) or Zoom. The meeting will take place from 12:00PM to 1:30PM PST. Register in advance for this meeting here. Registration is free but required.

Along the US-Mexico border, how one perceives their access to reproductive health services is often impacted by the various levels of border walls. Women’s position along the border will impact the level of controls implemented by states, and in turn the availability of services. However, identity markers such as immigration status and ethnicity intersect with geographical positioning to impact perceptions and experiences of access to reproductive care. This presentation offers an analysis of Latinas’ perceptions and experiences of access to reproductive health services in two border states (California and Texas). Based on extensive fieldwork (observation, survey and interviews), it demonstrates how immigration status and ethnicity influences how public health policies are lived along the border.

Dr. Andréanne Bissonnette is a postdoctoral fellow at the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University, where she is part of the binational research team focused on the equity of Canada – US border measures during the pandemic. Her research focuses on reproductive health access in the United States, with a focus on the intersections of ethnicity, immigration status, and geographical position. Born along the US-Canada border, her research has brought her to the US-Mexico border several times through the years, including for a research fellowship at the University of Texas at El Paso (2019). She has published her work on reproductive healthcare and health and borders in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Quebec in Montreal.

BIG Talk – What are we all about?

Victoria, BC & Zoom | September 19, 2023

In Person: CFGS C168 (Sedgewick building, University of Victoria) or Zoom. This event will take place from 12:30PM to 1:30PM PST.

Register in advance for this event here.

Join us to learn all about BIG activities and discover how to get involved with us.

Call for Papers & Proposals: VII AEBR Cross-Border School

Košice, Slovakia | 8-10 November, 2023

The Association of European Border Regions, Radboud University of Nijmegen and University of Victoria present The VII Cross Border School, an activity led with 21st Century Borders_Lab, University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada). The event will be held starting November 8th 2023 in Košice, Slovakia with the collaboration of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University of Košice (Slovakia) and the Research Institute of European Territorial Cooperation of the Uzhhorod National University (Ukraine).

This event is part of the AEBR Annual Events 2023 to be held in Košice on 8-10 November.

The Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), together with the University of Victoria (Canada), offers travel grants for original research or policy papers to be presented at the AEBR Cross-Border School (CBS) on 8 November 2023 in Košice, Slovakia. Travel grants cover travelling, accommodation for three nights and meals, and participation at the AEBR Cross-Border School and the AEBR Annual Conference.

Eligibility:

– The grants are open to researchers/academics (i.e. PhD students and early career professors), decision/policy makers (i.e. senior policy officers and elected decision-makers worldwide) and managers of cross-border structures.

How to Apply?

The AEBR Cross Border School is focusing on two broad topics:

1. Cross-border labour markets in border regions in Eastern and Western Europe. Labour Market during sixty years of EU integration and of CBC (i.e. different perspectives and views in EU eastern, western, southern or northern Member States) with a focus on, e.g.: (1) opening of labour markets for economic development or brain drain and exploitation of eastern labour force? (2) How different are the economic, social, regulatory, etc. frames for cross-border labour in the Member States (e.g. effects of cross-border commuting; the new phenomena of teleworking in a cross-border context; social security issues of crossborder workers, etc.) (3) What differences between the labour migration phenomena across internal versus external borders?

2. The role of soft or para-diplomacy in cross-border cooperation and EUisation of external borderlands. Possible topics: Is there a difference between soft (north American mode) and para (European model) diplomacy? What are most important border issues in the Slovak host region? Renewed cooperation across the EU-Ukrainian borders (I): hosting refugees and transit of humanitarian aid and other types of support. Renewed cooperation across the EU-Ukrainian borders (II): preparing and supporting Ukrainian border regions for the post-war and making their way to EU integration. Re-armed borders: what happens and what will happen at the EU-Russian borders? Strengthening border regions networking at EU external borders.

The basis for selection is an extended abstract (2000 words) with a brief introductory letter, methodology, preliminary results and conclusion and a brief application in free format on one A4 page.

The application should indicate the following:

– Name and surname

– Place of employment

– Curriculum vitae

– One-page letter of motivation explaining how the applicant will benefit from this opportunity

Please send your CV, extended abstract and application to [email protected] no later than 25 September 2023 at 12.00 noon (CEST) / 3.00 am (PTZ)

Further details: Grant recipients will be personally responsible for all arrangements and expenditure including travel, insurance, home and personal commitments. Contact: If you have any queries regarding eligibility or submission, please contact [email protected]

#9 BIG Podcast – “Geopolitics of Borders and Border Walls”

featuring Elisabeth Vallet – Professeur de Géographie et d’Etudes Internationales, Montréal, Québec

Globalization is a complex and plural phenomenon. Some have been able to evoke a world without borders and the disappearance of States, but we rather observe the construction of many walls and barriers. Some flows can cross territorial boundaries without problem while some borders become places of violence for humans. What geopolitics of borders and border walls at a time of a plurality of globalizations?

La globalisation est un phénomène complexe et pluriel. Certains ont pu évoquer un monde sans frontière et la disparition des Etats, mais on observe plutôt la construction de nombreux murs et barrières autour des territoires. Certains flux peuvent franchir les limites territoriales sans problème alors que certaines frontières deviennent des lieux de violence pour les humains. Quelle géopolitique des frontières et des murs frontières à l’heure d’une pluralité de globalisations?

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and the Podcast App!

“The So-Called 2015 Migration Crisis and Euroscepticism in Border Regions: Facing ReBordering Trends in the Danish-German Borderlands”

Martin Klatt | Geopolitics | 2018

This paper examines the role of Euroscepticism on regional cross-border cooperation between Germany and Denmark. It demonstrates that Euroscepticism, while absent from local mainstream politicians, had already caused civic unrest in the 1997 attempts to construct a return to history Euro-region Schleswig. It resulted in a re-scaling of the Euro-Region to Region and Schleswig to “Sønderjylland/Schleswig”, omitting any reference to Europe, European identity or a commitment to a closer European union in the relevant agreements. Border controls, on the agenda in 2011 and again since 2015, have demonstrated the institutional weakness of cross-border politics when faced with determined initiatives from the national center. Furthermore, the Eurosceptic Danish People’s Party had its best results in the border precincts both at the latest European and Danish national elections. Euroscepticism, even though difficult to measure on a regional level, seems to have been an ever present underneath current despite a political rhetoric of successful cooperation and cross-border reconciliation. The Danish-German case’s development might be more distinct, but nonetheless representative for European border (and cross-border) regions. While European metropolises develop into thriving cosmopolitan post-nation state societies, this is not necessary the case at Europe’s borders, where categorization and bordering remain common social practices by the large majority of national borderlanders with only a small portion of transnational borderlanders or ‘regionauts’ getting involved in border crossing social practices on a larger scale.

Klatt, Martin. “The So-Called 2015 Migration Crisis and Euroscepticism in Border Regions: Facing ReBordering Trends in the Danish-German Borderlands.” Geopolitics 23, (2018).