Borders Human Mobility and Identity

The main objective of this book is to analyze the relationship between border areas migration and national identity through the phenomenon of the Brasiguaios. The book will show how daily life on the border goes beyond a space for commercial exchange presenting itself as a privileged space for social and cultural exchange. The argument put forward demonstrates that the border brings different national identities into contact and that this interaction creates tensions and opportunities for integration between different political communities. Life on the border combined with migratory processes also shows how the idea of a nation tied to a state is strained. In this sense the border highlights the need to think about new ways of understanding political belonging particularly in transnational contexts.