ABSTRACT
How does one become a border officer? How are officers selected and trained? This chapter explores the essentially uncharted territory of border officers’ professional socialization, suggesting that scholars of borders, security and transnational policing should pay better attention to how security professionals learn their trade. By looking into matters such as the motivations of prospective officers, experiential field training and the gendered apprenticeship of dominance where officers learn to exercise their authority and by examining a changing hiring and training policy that emphasizes enforcement skills at the expense of administrative, customs and democratic policing abilities, this chapter initiates an inquiry into how Canadian border authorities have shaped a new generation of border enforcers.
