From the dissatisfaction with border studies for its inability to define the Dutch/German border and the US/Mexico borders beyond the ontological separation between the so-called “spectacular”/violent borders (usually the US/Mexico border or the external borders of the EU) and “boring” borders (often the internal borders of the EU, such as the Dutch/German), we ask ourselves: what connects the borders between Mexico/USA (Tijuana/San Diego) and the Dutch/ German (Nijmegen/Kranenburg/Kleve)? We rely on Bustamante's notion of everyday life and Otherness in border areas to map three dimensions of the asymmetries of power that these border areas produce relationally. It is about the asymmetries of the immobilities, the in/visibility of the border infrastructure in daily life, and the use of the proximity of the border to improve life. Building on this, we argue that attunement to the ways in which border power asymmetries play out differentially in producing a relational sense of borderland place opens a path to bringing seemingly disparate border spaces into relations. to become Other. ; Peer reviewed