ABSTRACT
The relationship and interconnection of identity formation, citizenship and the exercising of rights within the shifting and often unsettled borderland terrain may reflect the complexity and contradictions inherent in framing or reframing borders within North America. Under the current global concerns for security that relate to international collaboration for anti-terrorism initiatives, the complexity and understanding of citizenship for those nations comprised of people from diverse racial, ethnic, and religious groupings. US Department of Homeland Security had aligned and demonstrated its concerns for protection, with the initial failure of the SBINet project, "a new border protection program based largely on high-tech surveillance systems to create a virtual fence". According to Lyon, contemporary border policies around the world result in both regulation and openness, sometimes simultaneously, leading to an evolving but uneven and tenuous border and mobility management regime. That regime tends to prioritize certain economic classes and trade interests but marginalizes "exceptions", such as economic migrants, refugees, and certain identity-based groups.
