Seven Meanings of the Border Wall and Their Implications

Halyna Lemekh

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2024, vol. 39, issue 5, 813-831

Abstract: This article foregrounds seven meanings attached to the wall on the southern border by immigrants. It is premised on 67 interviews collected during ethnographic field research conducted in 2019–2020 in Palisades Park, New Jersey, a “global neighborhood” broadly known as Koreatown. The findings of the study reveal the following meanings of the wall: 1) a defense mechanism; 2) a symbol of anti-immigrant sentiments; 3) an intensifier of unauthorized immigrants’ “otherness,” 4) a demagoguery tool, 5) an isolationist tool, 6) a mortal impediment, and 7) a symbol of immigrant perseverance. In addition, this article sheds light on “immigrant affinity,” which refers to immigrants’ tendency to relate to other immigrants’ experiences and sympathize with their ordeals due to their shared immigrant status.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2023.2226401

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