11/05/2016: GTD Colloquium “A living fence: Inequality and the mobility of people, things, and money across the Haiti-Dominican Republic border” by Erin B. Taylor (University of Lisbon)
A living fence: Inequality and the mobility of people, things, and money across the Haiti-Dominican Republic border
By Erin B. Taylor (University of Lisbon)
Globalisation, Transnationalism & Development (GTD) Colloquium organized in association with Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE)
Abstract
Scholars have long recognized that there is a relationship between socioeconomic mobility and actual mobility. The mobility in “socioeconomic mobility” is no mere metaphor; rather, it is indicative of just how strongly our position in society and the market is tied to materiality. Much like Amartya Sen’s (2000) observation that freedom begets other freedoms, forms of mobility beget other mobilities. Migration can open up access to economic and educational opportunities not available in one’s own town or country, transforming the lifestyle of migrants and of future generations. The movement of things is just as important: successful trading brings in profit and permits one to climb the socioeconomic hierarchy. Mobility can, however, also have negative consequences. Whether mobility is beneficial or harmful depends upon the extent to which people have control over it, how they use it, and how it is deployed by others. I will address the relationship between mobility and inequality through a case study of the Dominican-Haitian national border…