Introduction

Abstract

It is received wisdom that processes of globalization have led to an increase in and intensification of border-crossings. In this book, we examine changes in territorial borders and attempts to regulate human mobility in the age of globalization. We are interested in the way states try to manage the cross-border movement of people for the purposes of tourism, business, family visits, work, or migration. Our focus is on liberal states, that is, states of the Western hemisphere. Liberal states are states with representative democracies, market economies based on property rights, and constitutional protection of civil and political rights. Liberalism eschews the absolute state and affirms the superior value of individual liberty. To this end, liberal societies have limited their sovereign prerogatives by constitutional rules and principles which protect equality of status and individual rights. From this perspective, the right to free movement may be seen as a key element of individual freedom. Nonetheless, even liberal states are not open states: they have an ongoing interest in closure and constantly negotiate the balance between liberal principles and sovereign interests.