Keen On

From MAGA and the UK’s Reform Party to the German AfD, aggressively nationalist borders controls are back in political fashion. According to Laurie Trautman, an expert on immigration at Western Washington University, we can date much of this back to 2020 and the Covid-19 tragedy. The co-author of When the World Closed its Doors, Trautman sees the global Covid crisis as the unintentional trigger for much of what is being taken for granted around the world now in terms of limiting or even eliminating immigration. But Trautman, who directs the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University, offers a practical internationalist alternative to the reactionary nationalism of MAGA and the AfD. Dr. Laurie Trautman is the Director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University. She engages in a range of research on the US - Canada border, particularly in the Cascadia region. Topics include trade, transportation, human mobility, and security. In addition to working with facu