The Cross-Border Metropolis in a Global Age: A Conceptual Model and Empirical Evidence from the US–Mexico and European Border Regions

AbstractIn a globalising urban world, cross-border metropolises are important spatial configurations that reflect the interplay between the space of flows and the space of places. This article scrutinises the different logics at play as urbanisation occurs around international boundaries. It disentangles the contradictory "bordering dynamics" that shape cross-border urban spaces in the context of globalisation and territorial restructuring. Because national borders embody multifaceted as well as ambivalent roles and meanings, they can be viewed as critical barometers for understanding how globalisation impacts cross-border metropolitan space. The first two sections of the article explore the two globalisation processes—"debordering" and "rebordering"—that define the formation of cross-border metropolises. We view the border as a social and political construction; as such, we propose a conceptual framework that addresses the changing role and significance of boundaries in the making of cross-border metropolises. Finally, we offer two contrasting empirical case studies, one from the US–Mexico border, the other from a European border region. By studying bordering dynamics in San Diego–Tijuana and Geneva, we are able to draw some conclusions about the challenges faced by cross-border metropolitan spaces as well as some mechanisms that will govern their future organisation. About the AuthorsLawrence A. Herzog (PhD) is Professor in the Graduate Program in City Planning, School of Public Affairs, San Diego State University, San Diego, California. He is also a consultant and writer specialising in planning and urban design in the United States, Mexico and Latin America. Herzog has written or edited 10 books on planning, environmental design and global/cross-border development. His latest book is Global Suburbs: Urban Sprawl from the Rio Grande to Rio de Janeiro (Routledge, 2014).Christophe Sohn (PhD) is Head of the Department of Urban Development and Mobility, Centre for Population, Poverty and Public Policy Studies (CEPS) in Luxembourg. His current research, funded by the European Union, focuses on cross-border metropolitan integration processes and the changing significance of borders in Europe (EUBORDERSCAPES project). Sohn is the author of many articles in urban and border studies and the editor of Luxembourg: An Emerging Cross-Border Metropolitan Region (P.I.E. Peter Lang, 2012).Notes1. Saskia Sassen, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001).2. Lawrence A. Herzog, "Cross-National Urban Structure in the Era of Global Cities: The US–Mexico Transfrontier Metropolis", Urban Studies, Vol. 28, No. 4 (1991), pp. 519–533.3. Important European transfrontier urban agglomerations, with populations ranging from several hundred thousand to more than one million are found along the Swiss–French–German border, the Dutch–German–Belgian border, in metropolitan Geneva on the Swiss–French border and in metropolitan Strasbourg on the French–German border. In North America, one finds transfrontier urban regions of between half a million and five million people along the Canada–US border and along the Mexico–US border at Tijuana–San Diego, Ciudad Juarez–El Paso and other urbanised zones.4. See also Lawrence A. Herzog, Where North Meets South (Austin, TX: CMAS/University of Texas Press, 1990), pp. 2–4, 13–17.5. Christophe Sohn, "The Border as a Resource in the Global Urban Space: A Contribution to the Cross-Border Metropolis Hypothesis", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (2013), doi: 10.1111/1468-2427.12071.6. Xiangming Chen, As Borders Bend: Transnational Spaces on the Pacific Rim (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), p. 13.7. Kenichi Ohmae, The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy (London: HarperCollins, 1990).8. Henry Wai-Chung Yeung, "Capital, State and Space: Contesting the Borderless World", Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 23, No. 3 (1998), pp. 291–309.9. Herzog, Where North Meets South, op. cit.; Daniel Arreola and William Curtis, The Mexican Border Cities (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1993).10. Remigio Ratti and Shalom Reichman, Theory and Practice of Transborder Cooperation (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1993).11. Herzog, "Cross-National Urban Structure", op. cit.12. Tito Alegría, Metrópolis Transfronteriza: Revisión de La Hipótesis y Evidencias de Tijuana, México y San Diego, Estados Unidos (Tijuana: Colegio de la Frontera Norte, 2009).13. Antoine Decoville, Frédéric Durand, Christophe Sohn and Olivier Walther, "Comparing Cross-Border Metropolitan Integration in Europe: Towards a Functional Typology", Journal of Borderlands Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2013), pp. 221–237.14. Sohn, op. cit.15. David Newman, "The Lines that Continue to Separate Us: Borders in Our 'Borderless' World", Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2006), pp. 143–161.16. Etienne Balibar, "The Borders of Europe", Cultural Politics, Vol. 14 (1998), pp. 216–232.17. Peter Andreas and Thomas J. Biersteker, The Rebordering of North America: Integration and Exclusion in a New Security Context (New York and London: Routledge, 2003).18. Henk Van Houtum and Roos Pijpers, "The European Union as a Gated Community: The Two-Faced Border and Immigration Regime of the EU", Antipode, Vol. 39, No. 2 (2007), pp. 291–309.19. David Newman, "Contemporary Research Agendas in Border Studies: An Overview", in D. Wastl-Walter (ed.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2011), pp. 33–47.20. Gabriel Popescu, Bordering and Ordering the Twenty-First Century: Understanding Borders (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011).21. Heather Nicol, "Resiliency or Change? The Contemporary Canada–US Border", Geopolitics, Vol. 10, No. 4 (2005), pp. 767–790.22. Matthew B. Sparke, "A Neoliberal Nexus: Economy, Security and the Biopolitics of Citizenship on the Border", Political Geography, Vol. 25, No. 2 (2006), p. 153.23. Nicol, op. cit.24. Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen, "Theorizing Borders in a 'Borderless World': Globalization, Territory and Identity", Geography Compass, Vol. 3, No. 3 (2009), pp. 1196–1216.25. Henk Van Houtum and Ton Van Naerssen, "Bordering, Ordering and Othering", Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, Vol. 93, No. 2 (2002), pp. 125–136.26. Liam O'Dowd, "From a 'Borderless World' to a World of Borders: Bringing History Back In", Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol. 28, No. 6 (2010), pp. 1031–1050.27. Newman, "The Lines that Continue to Separate Us", op. cit.28. Anthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984), p. 25.29. Sohn, op. cit.30. Van Houtum and Van Naerssen, op. cit.31. See Lawrence Herzog, "Border Commuter Workers and Transfrontier Metropolitan Structure along the United States–Mexico Border", Journal of Borderlands Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1990), pp. 1–20.32. See, for example, Lawrence A. Herzog, Global Crossroads: Planning and Infrastructure for the California–Baja California Border Region (San Diego, CA: Transborder Institute, 2009).33. See Leslie Sklair, Assembling for Development: The Maquila Industry in Mexico and the United States (Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1989).34. In Mexico, foreigners can lease land for a period of time through the fideicomso or trust arrangement; this is, in fact, how many Americans came to own land along the Baja California coast south of Tijuana during the boom years of the 1990s and prior to 9/11.35. City of San Diego, San Diego Border Area Plan (San Diego, 1965).36. Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard, "Temporary Paradise? A Look at the Special Landscape of the San Diego Region", report to the City of San Diego, 1974.37. See Fronteras, A View of the Border from Mexico: Proceedings of a Conference (San Diego, 1976); Fronteras, San Diego–Tijuana: The International Border in Community Relations: Gateway or Barrier? (San Diego, 1976).38. See Metropolitan Transit Development Board, San Diego-Tijuana: One Region (San Diego, 1977).39. State of California and US Economic Development Administration, Economic Problems of the California Border Region (Washington, DC, 1978).40. Economic Research Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, "The Baja California–San Diego County Linkage", in San Diego Economic Profile (San Diego, 1978).41. See, for example, Community Research Associates, Undocumented Immigrants: Their Impact on the County of San Diego (San Diego, 1980).42. The key policy analysis on this issue was: Comprehensive Planning Organization, International Border Crossing: Otay Mesa/Mesa de Otay (San Diego, 1978).43. See, for example, Lawrence A. Herzog, Planning the International Border Metropolis (La Jolla, CA: Center for U.S.–Mexican Studies, 1986).44. See Herzog, Where North Meets South, op. cit., chapter 7, pp. 189–246.45. See San Diego Dialogue, Who Crosses the Border (San Diego, 1994); Demographic Atlas: San Diego/Tijuana (San Diego, 1995); Planning for Prosperity in the San Diego/Baja California Region (San Diego, 1993).46. San Diego Dialogue, The San Diego-Tijuana Binational Region, 1996: A Briefing Book (San Diego, 1996).47. See Mark J. Spalding (ed.), Sustainable Development in San Diego-Tijuana (La Jolla, CA: Center for U.S.–Mexican Studies, 1999).48. See Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce and San Diego Dialogue, Planning for Prosperity in the San Diego/Baja California Region (San Diego, 1993).49. See the SANDAG webpage for the Borders Program, at: <http://www.sandag.org/index.asp?classid=19&fuseaction=home.classhome> (accessed 24 July 2013).50. These data were gathered over a two-month period from first-hand interviews, public documents, websites and library archival sources. It does not represent a comprehensive list of all border region projects from the period, but rather an approximation of the scope of projects in the planning stages, under construction or completed by the end of this period, the year 2001.51. For a description of some of these projects, see Lawrence A. Herzog, "Urban Development Alternatives for the San Ysidro Border Zone", Forum Fronterizo Paper, San Diego Dialogue, 2000.52. DHS oversees some 22 different agencies divided among four areas of concern: border and transport security, science and technology, information analysis and infrastructure protection, and emergency preparedness. Its objectives are to manage the nation's borders and ports of entry, prevent the unlawful entry of illegal persons or goods, and work overseas to detect and block illegal smuggling operations.53. Former INS Commissioner Doris Meissner told southern Californians in a December 2002 speech that it is wasteful to create giant traffic jams at the border, when 90 per cent of those being inspected are regular crossers who should not have to be kept waiting in line. If high-risk crossers could be separated from low-risk ones, the overall flow of people and vehicles over the line would be immensely improved and all would benefit. See Kenn Morris, "Moving toward Smart Borders", Forum Fronterizo Paper, San Diego, June 2003.54. For individuals, DHS created the Border Release Advanced Screening and Selectivity (BRASS) program, which tracks the entry and exit of people into the US. For commerce, it created a program called Fast and Secure Trade (FAST), which screens and tracks goods entering and leaving the US.55. See Todd Miller, "Immigration Reform=Surveillance Reform", Naked Capitalism, 12 July 2013, available: <http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/07/immigration-reform-surveillance-reform-as-military-tactics-move-inland-from-us-borders.html>, accessed 25 July 2013.56. During this period, the only transportation projects in play were the planning for a San Ysidro Intermodal Transit Center, including a new southbound pedestrian crossing moved to the east side of the interstate freeway, a proposed Virginia Ave Intermodal Transit Center, a proposed Otay Mesa East third border crossing facility, a proposed San Diego Freight Rail Yard Improvement project, and a proposed South Bay Rapid Transit project. All of the projects remain in the proposal stages. The San Ysidro Intermodal Transit Center is an outgrowth of the proposed remodelling of the San Ysidro border crossing a decade earlier.57. "Why close out the only option without an alternative?" Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego) told the press, "The INS is like a bunch of Keystone Kops. They have no idea of what they are doing, and no notion of what the community wants." See Lawrence Herzog, "The Border: Homeland Security is Not Enough", San Diego Union Tribune (op. ed.), Dialog, 26 April 2009, p. F-4.58. The government claimed it was closing the bicycle lane because people were renting run-down bikes at the border for a few minutes, just to save time. See "US Wants to Close Popular Pedestrian Border Crossing", New York Times.com, 26 August 2007, available: <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/us/26crossing.html?_r=0>.59. See Terry Rodgers, "Border Battle Brews", San Diego Union Tribune, 7 October 2003, pp. B-1–2.60. See a working version of this bill at: <http://www.schumer.senate.gov/forms/immigration.pdf> (accessed 25 July 2013).61. Miller, op. cit.62. In the long term the Mexican government expects the Port of Ensenada to serve cruise ships and yachting, when it builds the mega-port at Punta Colonet. See David Greenberg, "Mexican Ports Could Take Traffic from LA", Los Angeles Business Journal, 16 August 2004.63. Interestingly, this project was initiated by US entrepreneurs. The chairman of the project, D.J. Hill, claims that "Asia has not just taken manufacturing, but technology too, and a lot of people recognize that we need to do something about this." See Mary Jordan, "Mexican Officials Promote Silicon Border", Washington Post, 11 December 2004, p. E-1, available: <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56549-2004Dec10.html>.64. See Grand Genève webpage at: <http://www.grand-geneve.org/grand-geneve/le-territoire/chiffres-cles>.65. On 21 June 1999, the European Union and Switzerland signed seven bilateral agreements including the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, which came into force on 1 June 2002. The right of free movement is complemented by the mutual recognition of professional qualifications, by the right to buy property and by the coordination of social security systems. The same rules also apply to citizens of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states (see <http://www.bfm.admin.ch/bfm/en/home/themen/fza_schweiz-eu-efta.html>).66. OCSTAT L'Office Cantonal de la Statistique (OCSTAT), 2013, at: <http://www.ge.ch/statistique/domaines/apercu.asp?dom=03_05> (accessed 24 July 2013).67. Decoville et al., op. cit.68. See Grand Genève webpage at: <http://www.grand-geneve.org/grand-geneve/le-territoire/chiffres-cles>.69. According to the fiscal compensation agreement, 3.5 per cent of the cross-border payroll is paid by Geneva to the French border towns in proportion to the number of cross-border workers they host. In 2011, the amount refunded to the French towns reached 190 million Euros. See <http://archives.tdg.ch/geneve/actu/fonds-frontaliers-compensation-financiere-genevoise-atteint-records-2011-12-21>.70. François Moullé, "L'agglomération transfrontalière genevoise: acteurs, stratégies et fonctions internationales", in B. Reitel et al. (eds.), Villes et frontières (Paris: Economica, 2002), pp. 114–123.71. Jean-Pierre Leresche and Michel Bassand, "The Emergence of the 'Lemanique Metropole': A Process of Apprenticeship', Political Geography, Vol. 14, No. 4 (1995), pp. 401–417.72. See Christophe Sohn and Bernard Reitel, "The Role of National States in the Construction of Cross-Border Metropolitan Regions in Europe: A Scalar Approach", European Urban and Regional Studies (2013), doi: 10.1177/0969776413512138.73. Christophe Sohn, Bernard Reitel and Olivier Walther, "Cross-Border Metropolitan Integration in Europe: The Case of Luxembourg, Basel, and Geneva", Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, Vol. 27, No. 5 (2009), pp. 922–939.74. Jean-Baptiste Delaugerre, "Être frontalier en Suisse: le cas du canton de Genève", in R. Belkacem and I. Pigeron-Piroth (eds.), Le travail frontalier au sein de la Grande Région Saar-Lor-Lux: pratiques, enjeux et perspectives (Nancy: Presses universitaires de Nancy, 2012), pp. 237–253.75. Ibid., pp. 237–253.76. Ibid., p. 243.

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