ARIZONA & MEXICO

TRANSBORDER COMMUNITIES: VEHICLES OF COOPERATION AND
INTEGRATION IN THE ARIZONA-SONORA BORDER REGION
By Francisco Lara-Valencia
Transborder communities are networks of human relationships that transcend national borders to
promote cooperation and mutually beneficial initiatives.
Transborder communities are increasingly important and active along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The activity of transborder communities contribute to border development through shared governance
and joint implementation of regional projects.
Economic coordination and integration have been the glue that has cemented many transborder policy
communities along the United States-Mexico border for decades.
INTRODUCTION
Transborder communities are a very important resource for the United States and Mexico, but
particularly for border states like Arizona and Sonora. The border region between Arizona and Sonora is
the site of productive and important transborder communities. These communities are important
sources of cross-border cooperation and development in Arizona and Sonora and in the United
States-Mexico border region. Transborder communities play an instrumental role in bridging the
significant cultural, institutional, and political differences that exist between Mexico and the United
States and open the door for numerous opportunities to benefit from the complementarities,
interdependencies and socio-historical ties that connect both nations.
WHAT ARE TRANSBORDER COMMUNITIES AND WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
The action of transborder communities is not confined to one side of the international boundary. The
border, in a cyclical fashion, has been seen both as a resource and as a barrier to better economic and
social opportunity. They are not a new regional phenomenon, but they have become increasingly
important and active along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years. Transborder communities are defined
as networks of people or organizations sustaining regular interaction across the international boundary,
while pursuing a common project or mutually agreed vision. Familiar examples of transborder
communities in our region are the Arizona-Mexico Commission (AMC) and its Mexican counterpart the
Comisión Sonora-Arizona (CSA). Another example is the Binational Collaboration for Healthy
Communities in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region, a partnership comprising researchers, practitioners, and
advocates working together to improve public health on both sides of the Arizona-Sonora border.
The impetus for the formation of these communities comes fundamentally from the same source. First,
proximity causes spatial dependency and opportunities for interaction. Second, the border never has
been an impermeable boundary. Flows of people, nature, and goods were crisscrossing the border
before the ink dried on the treaty that demarcated the present-day border. Third, as interactions grow
in intensity and diversity, people of the region progressively converge on a shared vision and identity,
pushing local institutions and leaders to gradually embrace ideas of integration and cooperation.
Transborder communities have an active presence in a range of fields, including education and culture,
transportation, emergency management, tourism, business promotion, trade, technology, philanthropy,
public health, and many others. The influence of transborder communities is particularly significant in
the framing of the border development agenda, shared governance, and joint implementation of
79 • ARIZONA & MEXICO • ARIZONA TOWN HALL • APRIL 2016