ABSTRACT
Urbanization on Mexico's northern border has been strongly influenced by the proximity of the United States (US), and it has been both a cause and an effect of migration from the interior. In response to high unemployment rates, the Mexican government has been attempting to attract US plants to the Mexican border area. While there is little question that the Mexican and US borderlands arc interdependent, the "asymmetric" nature of this relationship has frequently been deplored in Mexico. Prior to the Second World War, international boundaries in Western Europe represented relatively rigid barriers between nations, but in the post-war period borders have become increasingly permeable to the mobility of persons, goods, services and information. The growth of interdependent sister cities along the US-Mexico border has generated and will intensify a host of social, economic, and environmental problems that require transboundary cooperation if they are to be addressed effectively.
