Borderlands have garnered the attention of historians of the Americas, Europe, and Asia. It is a perspective that emphasizes encounter, liminality, and places “in between.” How might this perspective inform the history of East Asia at the turn of the 20th century, a period when imperial conflict and domestic unrest seemed to extinguish opportunities for productive interaction? This talk focuses on Korean migrants in the Tumen valley, the meeting place between northern Korea, Russia, and China from 1860. It discusses their migratory movements across borders, the debates local officials had about them, and changing ideas about the relation-ship between people and place at this regional and international crossroads.