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96 BLURRED BORDERS AND SOCIAL INTEGRATIONSwhether violent or quiet, organized or non-sensational.Seen from this perspective, “borderzones serve as akind of laboratory for creative forms of local agency”(Amster 2005, 23). People in borderzones are hailed asskillful manipulators of passports and other badges ofidentity. Such forms of subterfuge allow people to takeadvantage of their interstitial position, for instance, byacquiring unofficial dual citizenship or circumventingcustoms agents in their cross-border dealings. Bordershere become a “malleable resource” (Amster 2005, 39)to people. In more than one study, the empoweringpotential of border-crossing is highlighted (see, forexample, Kusakabe and Zin Mar Oo 2004, Horstman2005 and Tsuneda 2006). Cross-border mobility oftenallows female border-crossers to step out of the repressivegender relations in their home village and acquire newsocial roles as traders and breadwinners.Against this background, it is possible to identify at leasttwo broad streams in the scholarship of borders.One stream places emphasis on the crossing ofborders, the activities and processes that take placein borderzones. In these cultural studies, bordercrossingbecomes an occasion for performance. Peoplewho move around borderlands take on various rolesreflecting their changing hybrid identities. They switchbetween languages, identity cards and social status intransversing political boundaries. Borders here becomea metaphor for experimentation and the explorationof difference, for transcending prescribed categories ofbelonging.The other stream in the scholarship on borders dealswith the notions of territoriality and space. It examinesthe consequences—both stated and unintended—ofliving in a world divided by borders: the politics ofdrawing and securing borders or, as the case may be,the possibility of the (selective) opening of borders.Here we see how borders are concrete manifestationsof state power. National borders are more than justlines on a map or demarcations in the physical world;they are “political constructs, imagined projections ofterritorial power” (Baud and Van Schendel 1997, 211).Territoriality is “a ‘spatial strategy’ which uses territoryand borders to control, classify and communicate—toexpress and implement relationships of power, whetherbenign or malign, peaceful or violent” (Anderson 2002,27).In today’s world, borders have become an accepted,taken-for-granted reality. We hardly question theirexistence. However, Anderson (2002, 27) asks us to takea step back and reflect on the flip side of territoriality:“While giving greater tangibility to power relationships,it de-personalizes and reifies them, obscuring thesources and relations of power. It sharpens conflict andgenerates further conflict as its assertion encouragesrival territorialities in a ‘space-filling process’.”Seen in this light, border-crossing is less an occasionfor celebration than cause for concern. Harrowingrefugee accounts from across the globe attest to this.Cunningham (2004, 345), thus, reminds us that “formuch of the world’s mobile population, the experienceof transnational interconnection entails rivers and oceansto be crossed (often in unsafe and overcrowded vessels),electrified fences guarded by border controls, stretches ofisolated desert, or the interrogation cell in the basementof a port of entry. As such, borders can be regarded asenactments of power on our globe, diagnostic of howthe apparatus of rule unfolds in a global landscape.” Theimage of globalization as an unstoppable, free flowingphenomenon is, thus, difficult to sustain. Therefore,even as nations are said to be moving closer together inthis age of increasing global interconnections, bordersare far from being anachronistic markers of possession.Borders remain highly functional barriers for keepingundesirable elements at bay.I revisit the underlying assumptions of the security aswell as cultural approaches to borders toward the endof this essay. This study, thus, begins by tracing thehistorical context of the Indonesian-Philippine borderarea, mindful of the possibilities of creative resistance,problems in policing partitions and attendant issues ofpower outlined above. The next section delves into thehistory and present-day situation of Nusa Utara, thenorthern islands where the Indonesian sea shades offinto Philippine waters.Nusa Utara: Islands in betweenThe island regencies of Sangihe and Talaud constitutethe northernmost tip of the vast Indonesian archipelago.These territories are composed of about 132 islands, outof which only 39 are populated. Combined, the regenciesencompass an area of about 47,320 square kilometers,95 percent of which is sea. The hilly topography of theislands does not lend itself to large-scale cultivation.On the main islands, there are neither industries norplantations, only smallholder cultivation of copra, rootcrops, vegetables, cloves and other agricultural products.Fisheries are another important livelihood. A smallerpercentage of the population makes a living fromtrading goods to fill the needs of the local population ofless than 300,000 souls.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows