ABSTRACT
If liberalization and the global economic restructuring that accompanied it set free both fi nancial and industrial capital to roam the world in search of the highest return, so also did streams of people begin to fl ow in partial response to the local, national, regional and global social changes that these transformations brought. Responses to these movements of people showed the limits of the supposed hypermobility that is a much praised characteristic of globalization: While elites have been free to fl ow across state borders with ease and in comfort, increased regulation and restrictions have been placed on the movement of those not blessed with elite membership. Thus, the European Union (EU) began to construct not just a Social Europe but also a Fortress Europe restricting entry into Member States by non-EU citizens from poorer countries. Similarly, the United States, a country built on successive waves of migration, began to construct a fence/wall between itself and its southern neighbours. Other regional concentrations of economic wealth also maintain highly controlled access regimes for non-nationals.
