Moving to Stay or Staying to Move? Borderlanders & Internal Migrants Negotiating Work and Mobility in Export Processing Areas of Tijuana and Tangier-Tetouan

Abstract

This chapter investigates the link between the transnational production of goods and migration in the context of export industries in border regions. Recognizing that labor migration in these areas represents a complex interaction between local and global labor markets, commodity chains, as well as internal and international migration networks, this chapter examines the motivations for migrating, options, obstacles and opportunities as experienced by workers in Border Export Industries (BEIs) in two case studies: Tijuana (Mexico) and Tangier-Tetouan (Morocco). Providing a comparison of these two cases, the chapter provides a conceptualization of the phenomenon of migration to and from export-processing areas in border regions based on the concept of migration hub. Further, this chapter outlines a rough typology of migration/migrants from such migration hubs.