Crafting the Neoliberal Border: Infrastructure, Migration, and Transborder Trade

Abstract

This paper theorizes and tests the rise of “neoliberal borders” as a dual-purpose infrastructural response to states' simultaneous demands for security and prosperity. A new global analysis distinguishes exclusionary walls and fences from trade-facilitating border crossings, showing that both reduce mass migration while only crossing infrastructure increases bilateral trade and improves trade legibility.