This combined conjunction and separation of national laws and customs creates a zone in which movements of people and goods are greatly regulated, examined, discussed, and hidden. Commerce attains a higher importance in border society as does dialogue about the identities of its peoples. Smuggling, the myriad signs in border towns, legal and illegal immigration, and the use of unneighborly names between neighbors are parts of this picture of accentuated concern with the trade in goods and the flow of people. The border is an environment of opportunity. Individuals find work enforcing or avoiding the laws that regulate movement.
Companies use national differences in labor and environmental regulations to pursue their advantage.
Border society thrives on difference, and people and institutions come there to exploit niches in its environment. Borders are artifacts of history and are subject to change over time. An approach to describing a society constructed by difference is necessarily many-voiced. Rather than a central, authoritative perspective, we strive for a de-centered point of view, one with many authoritative speakers. Of course, this is more easily achieved in the Festival of American Folklife program, where citizens of the border region speak and perform for themselves and their communities.