Bordering power Europe? The mobility-bordering nexus in and by the European Union

Abstract

The EU has been built on the idea that enhanced transnational relations and free movement of persons between Member States have a positive impact on international cooperation and hence on security.However, what we have witnessed in the past decade is a growing pressure to limit mobility, reinvigorated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Calls for a strengthened Schengen area go together with the externalization of European borders and the involvement of third states, but also with the reintroduction of border functions between Member States. Inside the EU free movement has been reduced if not stopped for fear of terrorism, irregular migration or the spread of viruses. Besides this, new techniques to govern mobility have emerged, affecting the role and meaning of borders. This article focuses on three dynamics of this process that entail a transformation of sovereignty, territoriality and rights: the externalization of borders, internal rebordering and logistification. The article argues that by focusing on what borders do rather than discussing what borders are, we can observe a more comprehensive transformation of the meaning and practices of borders within, around and outside the EU, a transformation that goes beyond the Westphalian imaginary and the simplistic alternative between hard and soft borders.

The motility of posted workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: policies, trends and worker experiences in Austria

“…Extant work has also discussed the complex and perpetual process of re-bordering and de-bordering within the Schengen area through the introduction of “green lanes”, i.e. measures that allowed the cross-border mobility of workers employed in certain sectors such as goods transportation or those moving to provide services, such as posted workers (Grappi and Lucarelli, 2022; Omran and Mavrommati, 2020). Yet, whether or how various types of cross-border workers like posted workers have used their mobility capital once the “green lanes” were instituted remains unanswered.…”

“…The European Commission (EC) addressed the border-closing measures and drew attention to the precarity that these restrictions imposed on the livelihood and the socio-economic status of mobile EU workers (Sommaribas and Nienaber, 2021) and the threat they pose to the sustainability of supply chains. In March 2020, the EC released guidelines to facilitate the return of nationals and the flow and safe delivery of “goods and essential services”, which included enabling the mobility of essential and posted workers (Grappi and Lucarelli, 2022). The guidelines emphasised that posted workers are employed in critical occupations and that “[t]he continued free movement of all workers in critical occupations is essential, including both frontier workers and posted workers” (European Commission, 2020a).…”

“…Thus, exemptions were made to permit worker mobility in sectors like health and care, science, medicine and pharmaceutics, ICT, infrastructure, food and transport. Although construction was not mentioned specifically, the EC further recommended the continuation of the cross-border worker activity between Member States, if work in the sector concerned was still permitted in the host Member State and expedited passage through dedicated lanes recognised within the Schengen area (Grappi and Lucarelli, 2022). In this way, the EC paved the way for the re-introduction of the available access options for posted workers.…”

“…However, such total mobility restrictions did not last long. Exemptions in the form of “green lanes” were quickly created for certain groups of workers (Grappi and Lucarelli, 2022).…”

Exploring the ‘Blurred Boundary’: Human Smuggling and Trafficking on the Central Mediterranean Route to Europe

“…From a policy perspective, the findings are particularly important in highlighting states' legal obligations towards supporting migrants who have been severely exploited en route. We are currently witnessing the further hardening of Europe's borders (Grappi & Lucarelli 2022) and increasingly punitive immigration policy in the UK (Stevens et al 2023), for example. Amid this context, the findings are an important reminder of the importance of looking at experiences holistically and focussing on how externalised border controls in Libya, for example, can contribute to situations conducive to exploitation and human rights abuses.…”