Human rights along the U.S.-Mexico border
Subtitle: gendered violence and insecurity
By: edited by Kathleen Staudt, Tony Payan, and Z. Anthony Kruszewski.
Contributors: Staudt, Kathleen A.; Payan, Tony, 1967-; Kruszewski, Z. Anthony.
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Tucson
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9780816528059; 9780816528721
Subjects: Women -- Violence against -- Mexican-American Border Region; Poor women -- Violence against -- Mexican-American Border Region; Human rights -- Mexican-American Border Region; Crime -- Mexican-American Border Region; Violence -- Mexican-American Border Region
Other titles: Human rights along the United States-Mexico border
Description: Much political oratory has been given to safeguarding America's boundary with Mexico, but policies that militarize the border and criminalize immigrants have overshadowed the region's widespread violence against women, the increase in crossing deaths, and lingering poverty that spurs people to set out on dangerous northward treks. This book addresses those concerns by focusing on gender-based violence, security, and human rights from perspective of women who live with both violence and poverty. From Pacific to Gulf of Mexico, scholars from both sides of the 2,000-mile border reflect expertise in disciplines ranging from international relations to criminal justice, conveying a more complex picture of the region than that presented in other studies. Initial chapters offer an overview of routine sexual assaults on women migrants, harassment of Central American immigrants by authorities and residents, corruption and counterfeiting along the border, and near-death experiences of border crossers. More chapters connect analysis with solutions in the form of institutional change, social movement activism, policy reform, and spread of international norms that respect human rights and good governance. These chapters show how all facets of border situation including globalization, NAFTA, economic inequality, organized crime, political corruption, and rampant patriarchy promote gendered violence and expressions of hyper-masculinity. They also show that U.S. immigration policy exacerbates problems of border violence. By focusing on women's everyday experiences in order to understand human security issues, these contributions offer broad-based alternative approaches and solutions that address everyday violence and inattention to public safety, inequalities, poverty, and human rights--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-221) and index.
Table of contents: title: Violence at the border: broadening the discourse to include feminism, human security, and deeper democracy  -- Kathleen Staudt; title: Women, migration, and sexual violence: lessons from Mexico's borders  -- Olivia T. Ruiz Marrujo; title: Human rights violations: Central American immigrants at the Northeastern Mexico border  -- Alberto Martin Alvarez and Ana Fernández Zubieta; title: Crime and violence in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands: NAFTA's underground economy as a source of in/security, with comparisons to the EU  -- Julie A. Murphy Erfani; title: In the footsteps of spirits: migrant women's testimonios in a time of  heightened border enforcement  -- Anna Ochoa O'Leary; title: Violence against women at the border: unpacking institutions  -- Kathleen Staudt; title: Femicide on the border and new forms of protest: the International Caravan for Justice  -- Carol Mueller, Michelle Hansen, and Karen Qualtire; title: Transnational advocacy networks, international norms, and political change in Mexico: the murdered women of Ciudad Juárez  -- Olga Aikin Araluce; title: Human trafficking and protections for undocumented victims in the United States -- David A. Shirk and Alexandra T. Webber.