Borders

Mass migration is the 21st century’s revolution – leading, in turn, to a counter-revolution which threatens the core idea of the European Union. The refugee crisis has resulted in the reinforcement of stereotypes that Eastern and Western Europe already held about each other.

The Green Observatory provides a round-up of perspectives on a current political issue from the Green European Journal’s partners around Europe. This edition focuses its lens on the so-called ‘refugee crisis’: how is this crisis perceived and does the perception at all correlate to facts? Are the new EU proposals responding to the situation and are EU member states willing to shoulder each other?

Since the outset, the ‘Franco-German engine’ has been the driving force in the European construction process.

We find ourselves living in a society where increasingly our actions and our right to freedom of cross-border movements – or lack thereof – are being constantly monitored, both physically and digitally. But as we enter the surveillance age, forms of digital civil disobedience are fighting to go beyond these new borders and to protect our scrutinised values and movements, and our right to privacy.

A crisis point has emerged, whereby the figure of the ‘irregular’ migrant is seen as both a security threat to the European Union (EU) and its borders and as a life that is itself threatened and in need of saving by the EU and its agencies.

Music has an immense capacity to bring people together and foster cultural understanding. Case studies from the UK show us how entire new musical genres have emerged from the encounter of different musical traditions, and how the cultural landscape of a nation can be enriched thanks to the influence of migrant communities and diasporas.

A shadow looms over Europe. Everywhere, new borders are sprouting up overnight like mushrooms.

For Turkish citizens, entering and traveling within the EU can be a frustrating struggle, with many bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. Although this state of affairs seems a great injustice, the prospect of easier access for Turks to countries within Schengen seems fraught with difficulties – both linked to Turkey’s turbulent domestic politics as well as the increasingly uncertain state of the EU’s internal borders.

Professor Bronisław Geremek was a Father Figure to Europe.

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.