Crossing Borders

In this episode of the Pen and Sword podcast from Stratfor, a RANE company, Emily Donahue speaks with Jessica Goudeau, who has written the story of two women and their experiences as refugees in America.

The U.S.-Mexican border is in some fundamental ways arbitrary. The line of demarcation defines political and military relationships, but does not define economic or cultural relationships. The borderlands -- and they run hundreds of miles deep into the United States at some points -- have extremely close cultural and economic links with Mexico. Where there are economic links, there always are movements of population. It is inherent.

Join Stratfor's Emily Hawthorne for an engaging discussion about the global and geopolitical phenomenon of human migration with Professor Dohra Ahmad.

While Russia cannot escape its negative demographic trends, if positive early figures from 2019 on migration are sustained, it can at least reduce the damage.

The Honduran left's electoral strategy will create greater conflict over immigration between Mexico and the United States.

The White House has retained its option to impose economic penalties if it decides Mexico City's efforts to stem migrant flows aren't sufficient. That threat alone will create problems for AMLO's government.

Should the current wave of protests in the Central American country drag on, more Honduran migrants might head to the United States, with implications for that country and its southern neighbor, Mexico.

Russia's demographic downturn is a surprise to no one -- although the sheer extent of the problem might be.

Despite the outsized attention the caravans have drawn, they are just one of many factors that have contributed to the crisis unfolding along the border with Mexico.