Politics of resilience . . . politics of borders? In-mobility, insecurity and Schengen "exceptional circumstances" in the time of COVID-19 at the Spanish-Portuguese border1

Abstract

This chapter aims to contribute to the debate concerning borders and resilience by examining some of the practices and representations about European borders, external and internal, in times of COVID-19, to approach the resilience of both the state borders and the borderlands. Mobility restrictions associated with the (re)enactment of borders seem to be a persistent state territorial response in times of emergency. However, there is also a re-making and valorisation of social relations around the border in borderland communities in times of the closing of borders. The study is based on different sets of materials that provide insights into the different versions of the closure of the Spanish-Portuguese border due to the pandemic, and the reactions of borderlanders to the closure. The study is supported by continuous fieldwork and research in the area for more than fifteen years, which alleviates the difficulty of doing fieldwork since the pandemic has exploded.