ABSTRACT
In this world of hypermobility not only are we often engaged in border-crossings of one kind or another, but the nature and functions of borders themselves are shifting. Thus Balibar argues that borders “are no longer the shores of politics, but have indeed become … things within the space of the political itself. However, as he notes, the fact that borders are vacillating does not mean that they are disappearing. On the contrary, he argues, far from Ohmae's vision of the “borderless world” discussed earlier, we see increasingly that “borders are being both multiplied and reduced in their localisation and their function, they are being thinned and doubled, becoming border zones, regions or countries where one can reside and live”. 1 The transformation of the means of international communication has, according to Balibar
relativised the functions of the point of entry and by contrast revalorised internal controls, creating within each territory zones of transit and transition, populations awaiting entry or exit, individually or collectively engaged in a process of negotiation of their … mode of presence (and … rights) with one or more states. 2
