ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter sets the stage by reflecting on the cultural shift towards law enforcement that has come to characterize border control in Canada and many other countries. It asks, what political, economic and organizational choices are behind a more coercive form of bordering? To answer this question, the chapter introduces the reader to an original approach to border control as borderwork, taking it as the everyday physical and symbolic work undertaken by frontline border workers while policing the border. The chapter then reflects on how this approach opens up new possibilities for research on bordering, in five topics: technologies, unions, gender and embodiment, the pedagogies of border control and generational borderwork.
