IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v3y2017i1d10.1057_s41599-017-0031-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Crossing between the Great Wall of China and the “Great” Trump Wall

Author

Listed:
  • Mimi Yang

    (Carthage College)

Abstract

Can a border wall really deter invaders and crossers alike, while defending, unifying, and maintaining the “purity” of the culture that it encircles? The first Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC) and his successors in the following dynasties tried to achieve the purpose; the Great Wall of China testifies timelessly to such epic efforts. Have the Chinese rulers succeeded? The question has become increasingly daunting and unanswerable as history unfolds and evolves. Ironically, over more than two millennia, the piecemeal erection of the Great Wall has indeed sequenced a ‘wall-DNA’ in a cultural blueprint. Fast forwarding to the 21st century America, we find ourselves asking the same questions when President Trump vows to build a “great, great” wall, physical and impenetrable on the US-Mexico border. The Trump Wall is designed to stop Mexican illegal immigrants entering the US so that Americans’ interests will be protected, English language will not be “contaminated”, and American values will not be challenged. The Trump wall sets out to delineate what America is and thus attempts to “make America great again”. In an intercultural engagement, this article decodes a wall-DNA in American culture, argues that the Trump wll is more of a mental construct than a physical one, and calls for a redefinition of a 21st century American cultural identity, in front of the Trump Wall.

Suggested Citation

  • Mimi Yang, 2017. "Crossing between the Great Wall of China and the “Great” Trump Wall," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:3:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-017-0031-2
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-017-0031-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-017-0031-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-017-0031-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manuela Angelucci, 2012. "US Border Enforcement and the Net Flow of Mexican Illegal Migration," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(2), pages 311-357.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mimi Yang, 2018. "Trumpism: a disfigured Americanism," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-13, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pia Orrenius, 2019. "Enforcement and illegal migration," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-81, November.
    2. Aydemir, Abdurrahman & Robinson, Chris, 2006. "Return and Onward Migration Among Working Age Men," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2006273e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    3. Gathmann, Christina, 2008. "Effects of enforcement on illegal markets: Evidence from migrant smuggling along the southwestern border," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(10-11), pages 1926-1941, October.
    4. Jesúús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, 2011. "New Evidence on Emigrant Selection," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 72-96, February.
    5. David, Blight, 2020. "Trends of International Migration since Post-World War II," MPRA Paper 106307, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    6. Christian Schluter & Jackline Wahba, 2012. "Abstract: Illegal Migration, Wages, and Remittances: Semi-Parametric Estimation of Illegality Effects," Norface Discussion Paper Series 2012037, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.
    7. Giacomo Battiston, 2022. "Rescue on Stage: Border Enforcement and Public Attention in the Mediterranean Sea," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0292, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    8. Khulan Altangerel & Jan van Ours, 2016. "U.S. Immigration Reform and the Dynamics of Mexican Migration," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 17-043/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    9. Aydemir, Abdurrahman & Robinson, Chris, 2006. "Retour et reprise de migration chez les hommes en age de travailler," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 2006273f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    10. Binhan Elif, Yilmaz, 2016. "International Migration Trends and Policy Effects," MPRA Paper 106103, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2016.
    11. Manuela Angelucci, 2015. "Migration and Financial Constraints: Evidence from Mexico," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(1), pages 224-228, March.
    12. Isabelle Chort & Maëlys de la Rupelle, 2022. "Managing the impact of climate on migration: evidence from Mexico," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1777-1819, October.
    13. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Susan Pozo, 2014. "On the Intended and Unintended Consequences of Enhanced U.S. Border and Interior Immigration Enforcement: Evidence From Mexican Deportees," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(6), pages 2255-2279, December.
    14. Klabunde, Anna, 2014. "Computational Economic Modeling of Migration," Ruhr Economic Papers 471, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Sílvio Rendon & Alfredo Cuecuecha, 2010. "International job search: Mexicans in and out of the US," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 53-82, March.
    16. Guillermo Paredes-Orozco, 2019. "The limits to cumulative causation revisited: Urban-origin Mexico‒US migration in an era of increased immigration restrictions," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(28), pages 815-846.
    17. Abdurrahman Aydemir & Chris Robinson, 2008. "Global labour markets, return, and onward migration," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 41(4), pages 1285-1311, November.
    18. Chan Mono Oum & Gazi M. Hassan & Mark J. Holmes, 2021. "Direct Monetary Costs and Its Determinants in Migration Decisions: Case of Cross-Border Labour Migration from Cambodia to Thailand," Working Papers in Economics 21/06, University of Waikato.
    19. Wahba, Jackline & Schluter, Christian, 2009. "Illegal migration, wages and remittances- semi-parametric estimation of illegality effects," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 913, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    20. Biavaschi, Costanza, 2016. "Recovering the counterfactual wage distribution with selective return migration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 59-80.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:3:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-017-0031-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.