The Schengen Crisis and the End of the “Myth” of Europe Without Borders

Abstract

The European Schengen crisis, spurred off by a wave of terrorist attacks in Europe and an unexpected increase in migration across the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 led to a re-questioning of the functions of borders in European integration. The ideal of a “Europe without borders” has been particularly affected. Indeed, the re-introduction of border controls in several Member States of the European Union (EU) symbolized a new obstacle to free circulation in Europe and the “separation” function of the border seems to have strengthened. This contribution will argue that the Schengen crisis has not put an end to “Europe without borders” in terms of free movement of goods, services, capital and people. It will claim instead that there has been a construction of a “myth” of “Europe without borders” with a different meaning, i.e. in which “Europe without borders” is not a means to an objective but an objective in itself, that of an EU where all borders are assumed to have negative functions and should therefore disappear. The Schengen crisis helps to unravel this “myth” by demonstrating that borders can also have positive functions, that they persist within the EU and that their control remains a competence of the EU Member States. Adopting a less mystified view of “Europe without borders” and assessing its origin and development from a disciplinary approach in Contemporary History, helps to better explain the processes of de- and re-bordering in Europe and their relationship to European integration.

The influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on Czech-Polish cross-border cooperation: From debordering to re-bordering?

“…It was the 2015 refugee crisis, however, which led to a questioning of both the functions of borders in controlling migration, as well as European integration as a whole. The ideal of a "Europe without borders" was questioned because both the Schengen agreement and the Dublin convention were unable to deal with this crisis (Brunet-Jailly and Wassenberg, 2020). According to studies of the French-Italian border, the impact of the 2015-crisis related border checks on inhabitants of this region was rather symbolic than factual, as the checks concentrated on thirdcountry nationals and left the majority of border crossings unaffected (Casella Colombeau, 2020).…”

“…A substantial part of Europeans (used to) cross national borders on a daily or weekly basis for education, work or leisure (ESPON, 2018;Jaansoo, 2019) and contributed thus to de-territorialism (Medeiros et al, 2020). The decreasing importance of national borders, studied as debordering, created a mainstream of border scholarship (Brunet-Jailly and Wassenberg, 2020). This story started to be harpooned by growing Euroscepticism, which had Brexit as its main consequence so far (Riedel, 2018).…”

“…This story started to be harpooned by growing Euroscepticism, which had Brexit as its main consequence so far (Riedel, 2018). Migration crises and the related increase of populism based on identarian/localism discourses in the world and European politics brought along observable rebordering (Wassenberg, 2020). Despite some European Union (EU) Member States introducing temporary borderchecks as a reaction to migration waves and terrorism acts in 2015, the borders were generally open until March 2020.…”

Areas Of Socio-Geographical Study Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In Russia And The World

“…Paradoxically, it turned out that on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Schengen agreement, almost all movement within its area was prohibited. The trend towards erecting barriers to the movement of individuals, which had emerged a few years earlier to limit migration flows that had swept the EU countries, reached its climax (Filippov 2020;Wassenberg 2020). The closure of the borders took place in an atmosphere of extreme alarm and haste, asynchronously and asymmetrically, and it was not agreed even between the EU countries.…”

The The Swiss–French Border Closure During COVID-19: A Cross-border Worker’s View

“…The pandemic showed that Europe was not immune to this phenomenon. As the last decade has shown signs of a hardening of European borders especially in the context of the wave of terrorist attacks that flared up across Europe-especially in France in 2015-2016-and of the so-called migrant "crisis" that started in 2015 (Bartel, Delcroix, and Pape 2020;UNHCR 2020;Wassenberg 2020), this trend of chronic reinforcements of borders within the Schengen Area has persisted and expanded. The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily put on hold the Schengen Area insofar as all countries closed their borders.…”