Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This study analyzes the narrative identity dimension related to transnational migration through the case of Brazilian migrants in Santiago, Chile. Using a phenomenological-hermeneutic research approach, we collected life stories, conducted in-depth interviews and utilized photovoice with Brazilians who have been living in the Chilean capital for at least one year. The data were collected in 2018 and 2019 and were analyzed using thematic content analysis with the help of MaxQDA 2020 software. Our findings reveal that the recognition and welcome of “Brazilianness” in Chile provide these migrants with a distinct advantage over other migrants in the receiving society in the labor, social, and interpersonal spheres. This condition, paired with everyday transnational experiences, contributed to constructing an expanded narrative of self for the participants. We interpret that this subjective expansion has configured as an interstitial space that favors the emergence of culturally hybrid narrative identities that challenge the centrality of national identities in personal narratives.

This article explores the heuristic possibilities of jointly addressing internal and international migrations, an aspect often neglected by migration studies which have tended to analyze them separately. Focused on the case of Barcelona between 1960 and 2020, the study combines the analysis of secondary sources and ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the authors in two neighborhoods of the city. It shows how both types of mobility have been “migrantized”, that is, subjected to a distinctive social condition that refers to the processes of subalternization to which these groups have been subjected in their societies of residence. While the scope of generalization of the results to other cases requires further research, solid evidence is provided of the contingent nature of the immigrant category and the analytical possibilities of exploring the processes of boundary-making —construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of boundaries— related to human mobility.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, several Western countries have opened their borders to Ukrainian refugees, even though their international protection systems tended to be restrictive and selective. Based on a hemerographic analysis and a review of the academic literature, this paper analyzes the factors that influenced the United States and Canada's migration policy responses to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Additionally, Ukrainian migration and the emergence of the diaspora in Europe and North America are presented and examined for contextualization. It argues that the openness to welcoming Ukrainian nationals can be understood as an expression of smart power in the global conflict between the West and Russia.

The article analyzes rural territorial conflicts on interethnic and intercultural borderlands in La Guajira, Vichada, and Putumayo in Colombia, focusing on developments from the past two decades. The objectives are to review and adopt concepts of borders linked to identities, territorial planning and governance; to classify, weight and geolocate conflicts using the National Land Agency (ANT, Spanish acronym of Agencia Nacional de Tierras) database; and to conduct a comparative analysis to identify similarities, differences and common causalities. Methodologically, the study unfolds in two stages: first, articulating the conceptual framework with the ANT database updated to August 2024; second, a comparative analysis based on typological classifications, georeferencing and weighting. Results show that conflicts concentrate in community-private and intercultural disputes, associated with overlapping territorialities, extractivism, the presence of armed actors and institutional shortcomings. It is concluded that transforming these conflicts requires strengthening intercultural governance and institutional coordination to ensure more equitable and sustainable territorial arrangements.

From the perspective of security studies, and with a pragmatic and constructivist theoretical approach, this article analyzes the characteristics of illegal arms trafficking in Norte de Santander (Colombia) during the border closure (2015-2022), in order to understand its evolution and determine the impact of the border closure on this crime. Using a mixed methodology, data from the Global Study on Firearms Trafficking 2020, statistics on non-administrative arms seizures by the Colombian National Police, and interviews with National Army officers who served in this region during the period studied were used. The results show that trafficking persisted through unofficial routes, and that corruption in sectors of the Venezuelan armed forces was key to the continuation of this crime. Revolvers and shotguns prevail in the seizures, especially concentrated in border municipalities such as San José de Cúcuta, Tibú and Puerto Santander.

This article analyzes the transformations of the normative framework governing the situation of Moroccan women employed in the care sector in Ceuta and Melilla, the two Spanish autonomous cities constituting the only European land borders on the African continent. It focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, examining how the border closure on March 14, 2020, disrupted the circular mobility that had sustained cross-border care work, exacerbating existing precarity and altering the legal and institutional environment. Drawing on a legal analysis and qualitative interviews, the article highlights the complexity of the challenges faced by cross-border care workers. It explores their working and living conditions that are shaped by intersecting inequalities and shifting regulations. Ultimately, the study situates these experiences within broader debates on the intersection of care work, border controls, and migration, revealing how normative changes affect mobility and livelihoods at Europe’s southern frontier.

This article aims to analyze the central discourses present in narratives about deep-sea mining, to understand what representations are being constituted of the ocean floor and its minerals. With a methodology based on qualitative content analysis applied to grey literature, including media and social networks published in the period from June 2021 to June 2024, the results show that the themes of blue economy, governance and biodiversity are connected to resource frontier dynamics such as the need to exploit other sources, govern resources and present the ocean floor as a zone of opportunity. Although it is recognized that some issues may be missing, the sample illustrates the characteristics of the most dominant and recurrent positions on deep-sea mining. These findings allow to nurture the conceptual discussion and open questions about the creation of new extraction spaces at a global level.

The study aims to determine the relevance of the eurocity model for cooperation based on the creation process between 2019 and 2023, of the most recent of the seven eurocities established on the Spanish-Portuguese border, called Puerta de Europa and comprising the Portuguese concelho of Almeida, the freguesia of Vilar Formoso and the Spanish municipalities of Fuentes de Oñoro and Ciudad Rodrigo. An analytical methodology was followed, with the following results: the creation process is analysed with particular attention to problems of how to cope with democratic decline, a lack of administrative capacity, and the loss of transit of persons and goods due to the opening of the E-80 highway link. The paper concludes that Puerta de Europa shows structural weaknesses concerning cross-border development in a depopulating area.

This study examines what it has meant to prepare and sell food for Salvadoran and Honduran women in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, Mexico, who remain in Mexican border territory. The links between food and the experience of living are analyzed, focusing on how this commercial activity has allowed them to mitigate their memories of forced migration and experiences of territorial immobility by generating intercultural processes through the reciprocal relationships and the transformation of stigmas about their nationality and gender. Food has been a fundamental element for their autonomy, not only in economic terms but also in the possibility of thinking of a new life project. Through interviews conducted in 2020 with six Central American cooks and the participation in cooking with them, these women’s living processes and the factors that allow us to deduce that food has been a vehicle that has facilitated that process are described.

The article explores the concepts of border and transborder within Fronterology by analyzing their lexical and conceptual evolution. It highlights the importance of distinguishing between border and transborder. Prefixes such as trans-, cis-, inter-, and circum- are examined to construct neologisms that describe various spatial relations, considered key to understanding the transborder phenomenon. Additionally, it emphasizes the need for a multiscale and multidimensional approach to comprehend the complexity of the relationships that emerge from the border, suggesting that they are processes in constant redefinition.