External Borders Research Articles

Building Bridges over Troubled Waters

This Forum contribution presents fragmented accounts of historical narratives collected while conducting ethnographic fieldwork among civil servants in and around the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. It focuses on the roles that heritage-making practices play in articulating European identity and belonging within these institutional spaces. In the ongoing debates over ‘bridges’ and ‘walls’, Commission officials advocate building the former and tearing down the latter. The European heritage narratives they enact tell the story of a supranational community formed from the expansion of external borders and the elimination of internal ones. Through the transcendence of borders, both physical and cognitive, geographic distances and social differences are made increasingly irrelevant. Their efforts in this regard are nonetheless hindered by futurist temporalities that orient Europeanness in opposition to the past.

External borders and internal freedoms: how the refugee crisis shaped the bordering preferences of European citizens

ABSTRACT The idea that internal inclusion requires external exclusion features prominently in many theoretical accounts of modern statehood and citizenship. In a similar vein, it has been argued that internal freedom of movement in the European Union requires strict immigration control at its external borders. This article sheds light on the relationship between internal de-bordering and external re-bordering, making two main contributions. First, we theorise the idea of an integration-demarcation conditionality based on the European Union's symbolic legitimacy and functional needs. Second, we test the common belief that public support for free movement within Europe depends on a restrictive border regime for non-European immigration. For this purpose, we assess how the external shock of the 2015 refugee crisis shaped the bordering preferences of European citizens. We find that the crisis primarily increased citizens’ support for external re-bordering, and did not substantially undermine their support for internal free movement. Thus, the large-scale arrival of refugees has not led to a general backlash against open borders and immigration but has, rather, increased public support for the European model of combining internal freedoms with external controls.

The COVID Virus Crisis Resurrects the Public Health Exception in EU Migration Law

One of the consequences of the covid-19 crisis is the reintroduction of controls at the external and internal borders of the EU Member States. This happened in disorder because the competent authority are each Member State despite decisions appear to be taken at the European level. Public health is not always foreseen as a legal basis for those measures, but they can be justified by the exceptional crisis comparable to a threat for public order. The measures taken are not only border controls but more precisely border closures more or less selective. Member States were supposed to cooperate between each other and with the European Commission when taking those measures. All persons (nationals, EU citizens and third-country nationals) were targeted) knowing that most of them have the right to return to their Member State of nationality or of residence. Borders measures have been quickly replaced by health measures so that the Schengen are is not at risk of collapsing.

Re-bordering Europe? Collective action barriers to ‘Fortress Europe’

ABSTRACT This article discusses the collective action problems associated with different kinds of joint external bordering and highlights specific aspects of the European Union which I argue make it particularly ineffective at supplying (many) forms of external bordering. Applying this framework to the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, European Immigration Policy, and European Neighbourhood Policy, I explain why each of these areas is subject to chronic under-provision. I conclude that a ‘Fortress Europe’ is unlikely to materialize, giving rise instead to national re-bordering as a reaction to growing pressures on the Union’s internal and external borders.

Tonga

Tonga’s recovery following the devastation of the 2018 Cyclone Gita has been derailed by a double blow from the pandemic and Cyclone Harold. FY2020 GDP growth is estimated to fall to -2½ percent due to domestic containment measures, a sudden stop in tourism, and investment delays. The full brunt of the pandemic will be felt in FY2021 (beginning July) during peak tourism season, when a deeper contraction is expected. A worse outcome was avoided by early actions to close external borders—which has kept Tonga COVID-19-free—and prompt economic support. Beyond FY2021, the recovery is expected to resume in line with the global recovery, but the magnitude and trajectory is uncertain.

Free Convection Heat Transfer and Entropy Generation in an Odd-Shaped Cavity Filled with a Cu-Al2O3 Hybrid Nanofluid

The present paper aims to analyze the thermal convective heat transport and generated irreversibility of water-Cu-Al2O3 hybrid nanosuspension in an odd-shaped cavity. The side walls are adiabatic, and the internal and external borders of the enclosure are isothermally kept at high and low temperatures of Thand Tc, respectively. The control equations based on conservation laws are formulated in dimensionless form and worked out employing the Galerkin finite element technique. The outcomes are demonstrated using streamlines, isothermal lines, heatlines, isolines of Bejan number, as well as the rate of generated entropy and the Nusselt number. Impacts of the Rayleigh number, the hybrid nanoparticles concentration (ϕhnf), the volume fraction of the Cu nanoparticles to ϕhnf ratio (ϕr), width ratio (WR) have been surveyed and discussed. The results show that, for all magnitudes of Rayleigh numbers, increasing nanoparticles concentration intensifies the rate of entropy generation. Moreover, for high Rayleigh numbers, increasing WR enhances the rate of heat transport.

Forced (im)mobilities en route: ‘Justified’ violence of the border regime in Balkans

In this article, I explore the violent consequences of the post-2015 EU border regime for people from the Global South lingering through the Balkans. I intend to show that securing EU?s external borders through asylum and border management in Balkans is based on coercion and force, despite the efforts of the people on the move to transgress these borders and achieve decent lives. The efforts of people on the move to cross borders - which are officially closed for them - could be understood as force as well. Regardless of the legal status and ?motives? of displacement, people waiting and moving on the ?Balkan route? experience situations characterized by structural, direct, and cultural violence and respond to these situations in different ways. Pointing out to more or less hidden patterns of violence occurring at the EU?s external borders in the Balkans may challenge popular categorizations that at the same time oppress and protect people on the move. These patterns of violence are justified - but not justifiable - by the securitization of EU and national borders. By displacing violence as the so-called ?push? factor from the countries of initial displacement (i.e. countries of the Global South), I aim to acknowledge that it continues to be perpetrated en route. Patterns of violence in the Balkans further produce forced mobilities and forced immobilities. People on the move cope with these forced (im)mobilities in different ways.

Exploring cross-border cooperation in Eastern Europe: What kind of initiatives have developed in the Romanian-Hungarian border area?

Since the beginning, the European Union has believed and promoted the idea that an increase in cross-border cooperation contributes to enhanced European integration. This means that cross-border cooperation supports sustainable development along the EU’s internal and external borders, helps reduce differences in living standards and addresses common challenges across these borders. The aim of this paper is to examine the cross-border initiatives between Romania and Hungary with a special focus on the INTERREG projects, which have provided new sources of funding for cross-border activities and regional development in the RomanianHungarian border area. In this context, the cooperation has intensified in the last two decades, especially since Romania joined the EU in 2007. The research proves that cross-border projects and initiatives represent an important source of funding for this type of intervention, when no similar funding sources are available.

The Green Line in Cyprus: external border or internal discontinuity of the EU?

Defining the Cyprus Green Line is a contested issue. Since the accession to the European Union of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) in 2004, the EU has had to balance between two conflicting definitions of the Green Line. The first, set by international law and the United Nations (UN) resolutions, is that of a peace line that is only a temporary internal discontinuity within the RoC, separating both communities until a settlement is agreed. The second, championed by Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots’ pseudo-state, is that of an international border between both independent communities. The EU has had to apply both definitions at the same time, legally and pragmatically, which has heavily hindered its own peacebuilding efforts in Cyprus and reduced its actorness in Eastern Mediterranean geopolitics.

Results of the EU cross-border programme allocations and their geographical implications for border regions of Vojvodina/Serbia in the 2014-2020 programming period

Researching the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina as a region of Serbia and an European Union (EU) border region, we have long been concerned with the raison d’être of cross-border programmes, their impact, sustainability and long-term results. Against that background, the current study is focused on the results of the 2014-2020 cycle. The region of Vojvodina has neighbouring external borders with three EU Member States. While the partner countries have already applied for almost 100% of the available amounts, the implementation of projects and thus the payment of grants is only 50% effected so far. Our intention has been to examine the Vojvodina region in terms of cross-border programmes based on already completed projects and running along the lines of different Priorities. The Programme Areas of the four (Hungarian-Serbian, Croatian-Serbian, Romanian-Serbian and Serbia-Bosnia and Hercegovina) Cross-border cooperation programmes do overlap significantly. Primarily, we have been researching the territorial distribution of each, by reference to the locations of project owners and of project activities; as well as the related networking character of the projects implemented in Vojvodina in the Interreg-IPA (Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance) 2014-2020 programming period. It is then in this context that we examine the focal and connection points of the cross-border connections, in this way potentially indicating deficiencies in regard to sustainable project implementation. Without claiming to be exhaustive, we have also sought to reference impeding circumstances relating to a barrier effect that is obviously of particular importance given the fact that external borders of the EU are involved.

Life, Death, and the State

The author postulates that the recently widely discussed alternatives to the state as a political form and to specific states—empire, terrorist networks, transnational corporations, and international organizations—shared the qualities of transboundariness and extraterritoriality, while the state’s substantive feature had always been territoriality which helped it survive many conflicts. The first political effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is also global and transnational, is the revitalization of the state and especially its territorial dimension, that is, its right to establish and strengthen external and internal borders. Yet another, more important political effect of the pandemic is that the state has regained its sacred (in the sociological sense of the word) status and the role of the “salvation operator,” which it had had primordially and which temporarily receded into the background due to the widespread perception of the state exclusively as a “service structure.” The author believes that this return will significantly affect the course and outcome of another emerging conflict—between the state and digital platforms that are rapidly acquiring all the features of the sacred, in Durkheim’s interpretation of the term. The author concludes that it is the new junctions between the political and the sacred that will determine the further development of the world and the state. © 2021, Foreign Policy Research Foundation. All rights reserved.

Borders in the System of the Local Community (Concejo) in Central Spain from the 11th to the Middle of the 14th Century

The article attempts to analyze a complex of external and internal borders of the local community (concejo), which existed in the Kingdom of Castile and Leon from the 11th to the middle of the 14th century. The information of the primary sources (mostly the legislative texts and the documents) explains that the concejo (which united city and country in its borders) had a wide territorial jurisdiction. But in the same time the local community was much more the element of the feudal (royal and manorial) power mechanisms that the self-governed municipal institute.

Communities beyond borders: internal boundaries and circulations in the 18th century

To understand the political, social and economic conditions which made possible a certain freedom of movement in early modern Europe, it is necessary to abandon the idea of a state sovereignty which expressed itself through the control of boundaries and its territory, which is a relatively recent notion in Western legal culture. Thus, in early modern Europe external borders were porous, and surveillance systems were organised in a plurality of jurisdictions and responded to multiple logics and interests. This article focuses on Turin, the capital of the States of Savoy, where boundaries were defined by the control of urban institutions responsible for the police of the city, as the Vicariate. To observe the process of defining these frontiers, I have chosen to use an emic perspective, attentive to the point of view of the actors. This contribution is interested in the strategies adopted by a group of people subject to high mobility�construction workers�when faced with internal borders. This approach allows us to consider the �relational� substance of the border, its multiple and changing nature.

ПРОФЕСІЙНА МОБІЛЬНІСТЬ ЯК ЧИННИК ГОТОВНОСТІ ПРИКОРДОННИКІВ ДО ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ЗА ФАХОМ: ВІТЧИЗНЯНИЙ ТА ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИЙ ДОСВІД

The article presents an analysis and generalization of approaches to the nature and content of professional mobility. It is concluded that professional mobility is directly interrelated with readiness to work in the specialty, since these two concepts have common elements in the structure, in particular professional knowledge, abilities, skills and professionally important qualities. Taking into account the results of the analysis of research related to the problem of professional mobility, it was found out that this concept can be defined as readiness and ability to work in the context of transformation of professional (production, service) tasks, development of new specialties or changing them. Professional mobility covers the ability to successfully switch to another activity or change types of activities, effectively use the system of generalized professional techniques to perform any tasks in the professional sphere, and it is relatively easy to move from one type of activity to another. For professional mobility, it is important to have a high level of generalized professional knowledge, experience in improving them and obtaining them independently. The results of the review of publications on the research topic suggest that there are two types of mobility – horizontal and vertical. Horizontal mobility involves the transition of an individual or social object from one social position to another, which is at the same level, as well as a change of place of residence. As for vertical mobility, it involves the transition of an individual or social object from one social position to another. It was found out that mobility is an integrative property that is formed and developed during practical, educational, social, socio-cultural activities of a person and provides him with the opportunity to realize his inclinations, abilities, opportunities. It was found that in the context of training of border guard agencies' personnel in the EU, professional mobility of border guards is ensured by their high level of interoperability, which is a necessary condition for effective organization of protection of EU external borders by representatives of various European border guard agencies. The most common form of ensuring the professional mobility of European border guards is working within the Permanent Corps of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex. The training of Ukrainian Border Guard Agency's staff in the context of European integration requires the study of the experience of border agencies in EU countries to provide conditions for the development of professional mobility of border guards, which requires further thorough study of the outlined topic.

Impact of the new pact on migration and asylum on child refugees and unaccompanied minors

In the wake of the refugee and migration crisis in 2015, the European Union changed its legislation with a view to improving the protection of refugees, as well as children and unaccompanied minors. As part of the changes, the European Commission proposed the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, which drastically amends the Common European Asylum Policy. The Commission also withdrew the Proposal to amend the Dublin III Regulation on grounds of being contrary to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning the transfer of a child to the country of first entry. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum envisages procedures to take place at the external borders of the EU and exempts unaccompanied children and children under the age of twelve together with their families from border procedures. Such setting of the age limit of a child outright contradicts the definition of a child under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which determine it as any person under the age of eighteen is considered a child. A burning issue is the current practice of treating asylum-seeking children and minors principally as asylum seekers and not children. While they may be asylum seekers, they are children and minors first, and as such must be protected primarily by international law relating to their protection. Although the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees also applies to children, nowhere is the term refugee child explicitly defined. Comparably, while the Convention on the Rights of the Child does recognize the term refugee child, it provides limited guidance to States Parties to identifying and assessing the refugee status of the child. In arguing that the New Pact on Migration and Asylum should be in line with international refugee law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child and abide by the principle of the best interest of the child, this paper will attempt to answer the following: Is the New Pact on Asylum and Migration in compliance with the principle of the best interests of the child? Does it protect the asylum-seeking child as required by international and European law?

Queuing to leave: A new approach to immigration

Abstract This paper uses queuing theory to examine the linkages between legal and illegal immigration. This approach is particularly appropriate for periods of mass migration and can be used to look at how the magnitude of people trying to migrate affects the choice between legal and illegal channels. An empirical illustration shows how origin-country conflict and past migration differently affect current legal and illegal flows. With data for Schengen countries from Eurostat for documented immigration and the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex) for illegal border crossings (IBCs), I implement a generalized method of moments (GMM) strategy using different estimates of conflict-related deaths and lagged flows of immigration as external and internal instruments, respectively. Violent conflict has a positive and significant effect on IBCs but not on documented migration flows. I find evidence of positive spillovers from the legal channel of immigration into the illegal channel but not vice versa.

External Border Control Techniques in the EU as a Challenge to the Principle of Non-Refoulement

Over the past decade the EU has witnessed an increasing number of third-country nationals trying to reach its borders to find a safe haven there. In these difficult times, both the EU institutions and its member states have continued to proclaim their adherence to the right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement, while at the same time exercising (member states) and tolerating (EU institutions) sometimes rigid border policies which have, in practice, repeatedly caused the circumvention or breaches of these rules. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it will show that there is a substantive change in the member states’ border practices and their willingness to admit third-country nationals to refugee status determination procedures, compared to the pre-2010 period. Second, the paper will highlight that the change in the member states’ practical approach towards non-refoulement has taken place without altering a single word in the definition of non-refoulement in EU primary and secondary law. Consequently, the gap between the EU’s constitutional, normative expectations and member states’ practices has been widening, leading to tension between the reality and the law, which even the new Pact on Migration and Asylum (hereinafter: Migration Pact) may be unable to eliminate.

Межрегиональное и трансграничное сотрудничество на пространстве Союзного государства Беларуси и России: проблемы и возможности

Introduction: the large growth potential of integration attractiveness of the Union State of Belarus and Russia lies in the improvement of interregional and cross-border cooperation, which can create new prospects for dynamic development and influence on the world market as well as improve the geopolitical situation on the external borders of the Union State. Objectives: verification of the problem field and tools for improving interregional and cross-border interaction in the space of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. Methods: cognitive mapping, expert survey, comparison. Results: the study has revealed the discordance in the Russian and Belarus political elites’ preferences, the lack of their attention to the problems of interregional and cross-border cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, an ambiguous vision of Russian-Belarusian relations by experts. Among the methods and technologies for improving the interregional and cross-border interaction between Russia and Belarus, experts highlight, first of all, the development of the border areas infrastructure. Conclusions: the discourse on interregional and cross-border cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus manifests certain problems of an internal, external and interstate nature. At the same time,the political elites and the expert community of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus do not see the sphere of integration interaction and connection with the Union State level as priorities. The influence of the Union State on the improvement of interregional and cross-border cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus is underestimated. Consolidated interaction of political elites and expert community of the two countries is needed, which will make it possible to form an effective strategy for the development of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus on the way to bilateral integration.

Inside out and outside in: COVID-19 and the reconfiguration of Europe’s external border controls

»Von innen nach ausen und von ausen nach innen: COVID-19 und die Rekonfiguration von Europas Ausengrenzkontrollen«. The extension of border controls beyond Europe’s territory to regulate the flows of would-be migrants is a popular – and highly controversial – policy approach adopted by European governments. The present paper examines recent developments char-acterizing the externalization of border management in Europe, paying par-ticular attention to the changes that have occurred during the COVID-19 global pandemic. This represents a time when mobility has been severely re-stricted in most of Europe (and the rest of the world). The aim is to map the impact of the pandemic on relevant “externalizing” policy instruments (e.g., visas, extra-territorial patrolling and surveillance, external processing of asylum claims, and offshore detention of migrants) and to assess their future tra-jectories. The paper shows that during the pandemic, the externalization of border controls has expanded and adapted to the new conditions. As a result, some of the key dynamics that define this policy arrangement have been rec-reated internally, a phenomenon referred to here as the “internalization of externalized border controls.”. © 2021, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. All rights reserved.

The Historical Geography of Croatia: Territorial Change and Cultural Landscapes by Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš and Nikola Glamuzina

Reviewed by: The Historical Geography of Croatia: Territorial Change and Cultural Landscapes by Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš and Nikola Glamuzina David S. Hardin The Historical Geography of Croatia: Territorial Change and Cultural Landscapes. Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš and Nikola Glamuzina. Historical Geography and Geosciences. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2021. Pp. xviii+203, 6 black & white illustrations, 59 color illustrations, endnotes. $169.99, hardcover, ISBN 978-3-0306-8432-7. $169.99, paperback, ISBN 978-3-0306-8435-8. $129.99, eBook, ISBN 978-3-0306-8433-4. One would be hard-pressed to find a nation-state that has been the product of as many outside forces as Croatia. Waves of human settlement from the Paleolithic to the Indo-European invasion to Greek and Roman expansion to South Slavic immigration to Ottoman displacements and Austro-Hungarian settlement programs created a cultural mosaic that would only be unified independently twice, once in the tenth century and again in the twentieth century. Throughout most of its history, it has been on the edge of dividing lines and a shatter belt between competing kingdoms, city-states, and empires that each redrew the external borders, trade patterns, road networks, and landscapes. There have been English-language histories of Croatia, but no historical geographies until now. Coauthors Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš and Nikola Glamuzina have done a commendable job of peeling back the many layers of the Croatian historical-geographical onion in The Historical Geography of Croatia: Territorial Change and Cultural Landscapes. The book is divided into ten chapters, with an introductory geographical overview and nine time periods: Prehistory (Paleolithic through Indo-European invasion), Antiquity (Greeks through late Roman Empire), Early Middle Ages (collapse of Roman civilization through Slavic colonization), High Middle Ages (rise of distinctive regions through the first independent Croatian state), Ottoman Conquest (Slavonia under Ottoman control and depopulation through refugee migrations and the coming of the Vlachs), Early Modern Era (Ottoman decline and creation of the Military Frontier through the rise of the Republic of Ragusa), Spatial Impacts of Industrial Development within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (Austro-Hungarian rule and the coming of railroads and industry through a Croatia proper under a Ban's rule and the first great emigration waves), Croatia under South Slavic Political Associations (post–World War I Yugoslav monarchy through the latter years of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), [End Page 97] and Stepping Out of the Past—Developmental Tendencies of Croatia since the 1990s (Post–Homeland War through the present). The authors point out three important cultural aspects of Croatia: its Western orientation; Catholicism; and the inland/littoral divide. So while Croatia may have been fragmented and absorbed by larger external forces down through the centuries, beginning with the division of the Roman Empire in 395 CE, Croatia has remained on the western side of the divide between eastern and western Europe. Though incursions from the east (Ottoman Empire and subsequent population resettlement) did occur, Croatia remained an outpost of western European culture, maintaining use of the Latin alphabet and adhering to the Roman Catholic faith, while their neighbors to the east adopted the Byzantine Cyrillic alphabet and Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Ottoman Arabic script and Islam. The Dinaric Alps form the principle cultural divide within the country, and for several centuries the littoral slope was the focus of settlement and development by waves of colonizers, primarily of Mediterranean orientation (Rome, Venice, Austria). The interior (Pannonia) flourished under Roman control but remained a quiet agrarian region dominated by central European (Hungarian) influence for much of its history. Like the rest of Europe, Croatia also developed smaller regional identities that can be fiercely held and sometimes manifest as political parties. One remarkable aspect of Croatian historical geography that seems to recur in several different periods is the nearly complete obliteration of the cultural presence of in situ groups by invaders. Indo-Europeans erased the Neolithic Vučedol culture in Eastern Slavonia; Ottoman and then Austro-Hungarian forces wiped the landscape clear of each other's cultural presence in Western Slavonia. The Pannonian interior—the most prosperous of Rome's provinces in what is now Croatia—wasn't immune as the border defenses collapsed: Early all the elements of the...