One perhaps unexpected consequence of the global trend towards externalizing borders has been the growth of increasingly international cities at the doorsteps to Europe, the United States, and other top regions of destination.

Take, for instance, Tangier, Morocco, just 20 miles across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain and often the final stop for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere looking to reach Europe. The city is also 40 miles west of Ceuta, one of the Spanish enclaves in North Africa, and for many has become not just a waypoint but their final destination. In decades past the city was home to foreign-born writers such as William S. Burroughs, but these days many poor migrants end up on the streets or sleeping in the nearby forest, and have been hounded by authorities. Tens of thousands of migrants have also obtained residency permits in Morocco during legalization campaigns over the last decade. Meanwhile, a separate group of wealthier migrants, often from Europe, has come to seek warm weather and a cheaper cost of living.
 
Across the Atlantic, the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of Tijuana, Mexico, hardly needs further promotion. The border town abutting San Diego has recently added a growing community of Russians and Ukrainians to its populations of Central Americans, Haitians, and others. But farther south, the Mexican city of Tapachula has also become unexpectedly cosmopolitan. As Mexico has restricted migrants from passing through its territory, this city near the Guatemalan border has become home to groups of Africans, Central Americans, and others stuck in extended limbo. Farther south, is Necoclí, a small Colombian town that has swelled with tens of thousands of migrants passing through on their way to cross the Gulf of Urabá into Panama and destinations father north.
 
Along another migration route, northern Chile’s Tarapacá region has become home to tens of thousands of people from Venezuela and elsewhere. In recent months these new arrivals have been confronted with protest and, at times, violence.

New migrant and diaspora communities have taken a range of forms. Some exist in ramshackle tents on the outskirts of town, while others are more formalized and established. Often, migrants are trapped in limbo in these places, but over time their communities develop roots, whether intentionally or by simple happenstance. As wealthy countries push out their borders to complicate irregular migration and access to asylum, the waystation border towns of today might turn into the global cities of tomorrow.

Best regards,
Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
[email protected]