Greater binational collaboration among non-profits is needed. As illustrated in this report, several existing non-profits in the region are already providing leadership and showing the way on how to make effective cross-border collaborations work. However, there is a growing need for more collaborations on common issues of concern particularly on issues of education and health for the region’s growing Mexican transnational communities. Also, there is a greater need for non-profit organizations to work across specific disciplines and get out of their traditional "stove pipes". As ICF ‘s survey of migrant serving non-profits in San Diego County shows, there is an interest in such collaboration but, because of the current demands placed on most agencies, they are limited in both funding and staff to facilitate such alliances or partnerships.

Emerging opportunities also exist for US service providers to partner or align themselves with Baja California-based non-profits or those based in other Mexican states to provide skilled professionals with experience in addressing specific migrant needs. Curiously few Mexican non-profit professionals are currently taking advantage of the opportunities afforded them under NAFTA to obtain professional services or TN visas to procure services in the United States. Still, the TN visa has been restricted to a mere 5,500 people a year however this quota was due to be phased out effective January 1, 2004.37

Transnational communities necessitate greater inter-jurisdictional cooperation. Just as there is a need for greater binational collaboration among non-profits, it is critical that municipal agencies throughout San Diego County and adjoining jurisdictions (Riverside, Orange, and Imperial Counties) share lessons learned and best practices on the unique needs of transnational migrant communities in their jurisdictions. Similar collaborations can also be invaluable between Tijuana municipal officials and those in other parts of Baja California (e.g. Mexicali, Rosarito, Tecate and Ensenada.). In the case of the Oaxaqueno and Mixteco communities, there is a compelling need for the educators, social service and health professionals serving Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos and Carlsbad to work more closely together as well as with other Southern California communities on common issues and challenges that they are confronting in addressing transnational migrant worker issues and needs. Here expanded binational sister city relationships can prove fruitful. In the case of Oceanside, a sister city relationship exists with Ensenada but little has been done to further this institutional relationship. While this is so, Oceanside has much that it can learn from the work of Ensenada-based non-profits and local agencies in addressing migrant worker needs in the San Quintin Valley.

Investment in migrant education and health care needs is critical. To address economic and social inequalities in the San Diego-Tijuana region, investments must be made in improving the quality of education and health care options for migrant populations. Today, a growing number of migrant workers and their families in both San Diego and Tijuana originate from rural communities in extreme poverty, particularly the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacan and Jalisco. As such, education based non profits in both San Diego and Tijuana are challenged by the constant movement of migrant youth as well as keeping them in school. Health related non profits face increasing demands to address many diseases and ailments that would otherwise be very preventable with effective health education. Here opportunities exist for San Diego and Baja California based groups to work in collaboration with non profits in migrant sending regions to undertake expanded family-oriented "cross-border case work" with a particular focus on parental education and health education to address the unique cultural and language needs of the region’s transnational community.

Promote opportunities for cross-border trade, commerce, tourism and cultural exchange with migrant sending communities.
A unique opportunity exists to promote expanded trade, tourism and cultural exchange with the migrant sending communities of the San Diego-Tijuana region. Not only will strengthened ties with these communities help local civic leaders better appreciate the unique needs of the region’s migrant workers and their families, but expanded economic development and tourism opportunities will, over the long run, decrease the compelling need for would-be migrants to leave their homes in the first place. In this sense, Carlsbad, Vista and San Marcos would be wise to consider establishing sister city relationships with communities in Oaxaca, Jalisco and Michoacan.

Philanthropy plays a critical role in addressing unmet border challenges and needs. Whether one is a regional funder or individual donor, the growing socio-economic pressures in the border region necessitate taking a harder look at how one can make a difference, particularly in the San Diego-Baja California region where the needs are so great. While the need for cross-border collaboration is growing, so too is the need for expanded philanthropy among the region’s funders--including foundations (community, corporate, family), corporations, government and individuals--in addressing the region’s emerging challenges and opportunities.

We need to focus on our collective regional assets:
Far too often it is easy to dwell on the wide-ranging problems and challenges of the border as opposed to focusing on our collective assets as a binational region. San Diego and Tijuana are both blessed with an ideal climate, geographical location along the Pacific Ocean, proximity to major port facilities, and a diverse economic base that continues to attract skilled workers from around the world. Each city also has their own unique assets and strengths that complement the relative weaknesses of the other. If the collective region is to prosper it is critical that these mutual strengths and weaknesses are better understood by civic leaders promote the San Diego-Baja California region’s competitive advantage.

Much more needs to be learned about the San Diego-Tijuana Border:
The U.S-Mexico Border is the front line where the impacts of globalization and human migration collide along the geo-political fault line of the industrialized and developing world, and nowhere else on earth are the contrasts and contradictions of the two worlds so great as along the San Diego-Tijuana border. In this sense, the San Diego-Tijuana border region is a living laboratory for research on issues of urban poverty, migrant health and education, and class and socio-economic differences arising from growing levels of economic disparity.

The San Diego-Tijuana region is also blessed with a number of important academic and research institutions that are making significant contributions to increasing the collective knowledge and understanding of our border region including: San Diego State University’s (SDSU) Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias; the University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD) Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies; the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute and California State University, San Marcos’s Border Pedagogy Literacy Institute, the Universidad Iberoamericana and the Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF). Collectively these institutions are undertaking research and initiating a wide range of border specific programs and initiatives in the areas of urban and regional planning, education, health, and the environment, and more needs to be done to support these programs through increased funding.

Benchmarking is critical:
In November 2000 the San Diego Dialogue released their study entitled "The Global Engagement of San Diego-Baja California" that provided a benchmark for the current state of our border region as well as recommendations for future binational civic engagement. The events of September 11th changed some of the underlying assumptions in the report but not its overall vision. As the San Diego-Tijuana border region continues to grow, so does the need to measure binational progress specific to the level of civic engagement, job creation, and the quality of life measured in the areas of education, the environment, health & human services, and arts and culture. Here it is recommended that a "State of the San Diego-Baja California Border Region" be undertaken every five years with the next comprehensive survey released by Fall of 2005.35