America’s southern border has become a global crossroads
More migrants are arriving from China, India and Russia. Why?
![Asylum-seeking migrants from China rest at a camp as they await processing by the American border.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240120_USP508.jpg)
SOME MIGRANTS huddled in tents provided by local volunteers. Others slept on the desert floor, facing fire pits burning rubbish. The camp, which in 2023 sprang up outside Jacumba Hot Springs, a town in San Diego County, California, was encircled by mountains, highways and the border wall. When Border Patrol agents came to take people for processing, they had to resort to nonverbal communication. “Sit if you have a passport.” “Step forward if you are travelling with children.” If the migrants were from Mexico and Central America, as most used to be, Spanish would suffice. Yet among those who had just walked across from Mexico were people from China, India and Turkey.
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240120_USC020.png)
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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Over the wall”
United States January 20th 2024
- Why are Americans so gloomy about their great economy?
- How did the Iowa result change the Republican primary?
- Where Donald Trump still looks vulnerable
- Why car insurance in America is actually too cheap
- America’s southern border has become a global crossroads
- The election in Georgia could be as pivotal as it was four years ago
- It’s not the Trump Party quite yet
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