Resistance in the neoliberal city
2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13604810500050153
ISSN1470-3629
Autores Tópico(s)Urbanization and City Planning
Resumo“Democracy generally stops both at the gates of the workplace and the borders of a state.” (Anderson, 2002 Anderson P (2003) ‘A tale of two borders’, in P. Andreas and T. J. Biersteker (eds.) The Rebordering of North America New York Routledge [Google Scholar] , p. 34) “The border seemed to move with me, hanging overhead like a cloud.” (Blaise, 1990 Blaise C (1990) The Border as a Fiction Borderlands Monograph Series No. 4 Orono ME The Canadian‐American Center, University of Maine [Google Scholar] , p. 5) “I now understand that a man’s place in society is the one he takes.” (Tar Angel, 2001 Tar Angel (L’Ange du goudron) (2001) Film written and directed by D. Chouinard, 110 minutes. Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm [Google Scholar])1 Tar Angel (L’Ange du goudron) Tar Angel (L’Ange du goudron) (2001) Film written and directed by D. Chouinard, 110 minutes. Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm [Google Scholar] (2001, 110 minutes) was written and directed by Denis Chouinard (Clandestins 1997), produced by Roger Frappier and Luc Vandel, and distributed by Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm. Starring Zinedine Soualem (Ahmed Kasmi), Hiam Abbass (Naïma Kasmi), Rabah Aït Ouyahia (Hafid) and Catherine Trudeau (Huguette), the film was awarded best Canadian movie at the Montreal 25th Festival des Films du Monde in 2001, and received the Ecumenical Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2002. Original version in French with English subtitles. The commentary track by Denis Chouinard provided valuable insights on his artistic intentions and socio‐political influences. Borders, and their iconic images of gates, walls and fences, are ubiquitous representations of immigration policy and experiences. They express the control of territorial boundaries of a nation‐state and its people, distinguishing those inside from those outside. They also represent the physical, social and cultural transition in the lives of those who cross a border to settle in a new nation, and in the lives of the people left behind (Chavez, 2001 Chavez LR (2001) Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation Berkeley University of California Press [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Points of arrival are perpetual points of departure in the journey of a migrant. Powerful metaphors of the immigrant journey, borders are determined and maintained by economic and political imperatives constructing the flows of capital, goods, ideas, technologies, etc. (Appadurai, 1996 Appadurai A (1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press [Google Scholar]). International commercial treaties, such as the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, affirm the permeability of borders. Post‐September 11 discussion on the creation of a North American security perimeter that would allow for a multinational harmonization of counterterrorism efforts without impeding economic relations has generated particular pressures to re‐examine the security of continental borders. Increased border enforcement and technology have been the main harmonization strategies that bring a “high visibility and symbolic value of the border deterrence effort” and thus affirm the control of (some) people’s mobility and flow (Andreas, 2003 Andreas P (2002) Transnational Democracy: Political Spaces and Border Crossings New York Routledge [Google Scholar], p. 6). Economic borders have largely been dismantled under the banner of free trade while security borders have been refortified under the threat of terrorism (even though the north and south borders had very little to do with the September 11 attacks). National security issues have expanded the criminalization of immigration even though legality and illegality are integrally constructed in immigration policy. As Samers (2003 Samers, M. (2003). ‘Invisible capitalism: political economy and the regulation of undocumented immigration in France’. Economy and Society, 32(4): pp. 555–583 [Google Scholar], p. 556) argues, “[t]here can be no undocumented immigration without immigration policy, and thus those who are deemed to be ‘illegal’, ‘irregular’, ‘sans papiers’ or indeed ‘undocumented’ shift with the nature of immigration policy”.
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