Each week, thousands of Mexican nationals living in northern Mexican border cities cross the border into the United States with nonimmigrant visas to “donate” blood plasma at commercial collection centers in exchange for a prepaid Visa gift card (valued at up to US$50). For these individuals, many of whom work on maquiladora assembly lines, a single donation can nearly double their weekly wages. If the ability to keep wages low remains a key means of leveraging the border’s competitiveness in the global economy, we argue that the devaluation of maquiladora labor in fact relies on the capacity of communities and households to increasingly absorb the hidden costs of social reproduction. Grounded in two years of ethnographic research in Ciudad Juárez–El Paso, this article argues that plasma donation is an increasingly vital strategy through which Mexican households meet the costs of social reproduction. Further, participation in the cross-border plasma economy is inseparable from institutions and frameworks that govern border crossing. By following the movement of Mexican blood plasma across the border, it becomes possible to understand how the border itself—as a material barrier and geopolitical project—shapes collective capacities for social reproduction.

每周，成千上万居住在墨西哥北部边境城市的墨西哥国民持非移民签证越境进入美国，以在商业收集中心“捐赠”血浆，以换取预付的Visa礼品卡（价值不超过50美元）。对于这些人，其中许多人在加工厂生产线上工作，一次捐款几乎可以使他们的每周工资翻一番。如果保持低工资的能力仍然是利用边境在全球经济中的竞争力的关键手段，那么我们认为，马加拉多劳动的贬值实际上取决于社区和家庭逐渐吸收社会再生产的隐藏成本的能力。扎根于华雷斯城-埃尔帕索，进行了两年的人种志研究，本文认为，血浆捐赠是一种日益重要的策略，墨西哥家庭可以通过该策略承担社会再生产的费用。此外，参与跨境等离子经济与管理跨境的机构和框架密不可分。通过跟踪墨西哥血浆在边界上的移动，有可能了解边界本身（作为物质屏障和地缘政治计划）如何塑造社会再生产的集体能力。