Checkpoint Europe: The Return of Borders

Borders are back! After 60 years of peace in Europe and the gradual abolition of its internal borders, Europe is now experiencing the full force of the backlash. National borders are once again being heralded as the essential panacea for the multiple crises which have shaken Europe right down to the depths of its foundations. This threatens the hard-won gains of Schengen and of European integration at its very heart.

In response to these developments, the Green European Journal dedicates its 12th volume to new analyses and perspectives on the issue. New thinking on borders for new thinking on Europe!

Articles in this edition

01.03.2016
Border Games: Europe’s Shifting Lines

Borders are back! After 60 years of peace in Europe and the gradual abolition of its internal borders, Europe is now experiencing the full force of the backlash. National borders are once again being heralded as the essential panacea for the multiple crises which have shaken Europe right down to the depths of its foundations.

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01.03.2016
The Border Stone

A poem by Krzysztof Czyżewski.

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01.03.2016
A Balancing Act: How Europe’s Response on Refugees can be Strengthened

What responses are being prescribed by Greens who hold office in places heavily affected by these developments?

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01.03.2016
“It’s the Politics, Stupid”

The right to asylum is not a numbers game, it is a human right.

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01.03.2016
Europe: The Reconstruction of the Free World

National borders are a reality – and for most people, they are something that is taken for granted and indeed necessary.

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01.03.2016
The Ocean: From Colonised Territory to Global Nation

The approach of European states to the surrounding waters has so far been inscribed in a logic of colonisation and conquering new territories in the name of national interest.

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01.03.2016
Those Who Belong and Those Who Don’t: Physical and Mental Borders in Europe

Europe promotes migration and mobility, but new or ‘different’ Europeans are still stigmatised and marginalised in our societies.

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01.03.2016
Political Courage Can Work Miracles: The Retreat of the Left on Migration

The political Left in Europe appears to have given up on trying to put forward a positive picture of migration.

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01.03.2016
Reviving or Overcoming Borders: A Choice for Europe

Over the past year, Europe, besides the economic crisis, has had to face another big challenge: the largest refugee flow since the Second World War.

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01.03.2016
Borderland Europe and the Challenge of Migration

Confronted with the obscene images that have been reaching us ever since the influx of refugees entered new dimensions in the summer 2015, we may wonder: why is it that Germany behaves with much more dignity and efficiency than France, let alone the UK or Hungary?

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01.03.2016
Discrimination Is a Barrier That Can’t Be Knocked Down: The Roma Experience of Exclusion

The borders that criss-cross our maps, and the notions of national unity that they connote, belie the fact that within and across these neatly delineated units there are communities whose very existence is a challenge to this territorial division. The case of the Roma people, spread throughout Europe and beyond, is an apt illustration of this.

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01.03.2016
The Borderless Solidarity that Saved the Children of Vienna (1919 – 1920)

The idea of Europe becomes much more than simply an idea when people, overcoming the uncertainty – if not outright hostility – of states, act according to borderless solidarity.

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01.03.2016
Beyond Borders: Lessons From the Western Balkans

When we imagine a “green utopia”, an ideal world to live in, one thing is certain – that such a place is free of oppressive and restricting borders.

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01.03.2016
Europe: One House for All

Professor Bronisław Geremek was a Father Figure to Europe.

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