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Backlash to the “Open Borders ” Paradigm Within the Schengen Zone

Backlash to the “Open Borders ” Paradigm Within the Schengen Zone. Martin Klatt, Dept. of Border Region Studies, Sønderborg mk@sam.sdu.dk. A borderless Europe?. Four freedoms : movement of goods , capital , services, people

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Backlash to the “Open Borders ” Paradigm Within the Schengen Zone

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  1. Backlash to the “Open Borders” ParadigmWithin the Schengen Zone Martin Klatt, Dept. of Border Region Studies, Sønderborg mk@sam.sdu.dk

  2. A borderless Europe? • Fourfreedoms: movement of goods, capital, services, people • Art. 13 SEA (1986): ”the internalmarketshallcomprise an areawithoutinternalfrontiers” • 1985 (impl. 1995): Schengen agreement • No regularpassportcontrol • No permanent border guard installations • No reduced speed or othertrafficimpediments at the border • No permanent video surveillance/electronicregistration of licenseplates etc.

  3. Schengen areatoday

  4. Questioning Schengen? • Denmark: re-introduced of permanent customcontrols at the borders to Germany and Sweden in late spring-sept. 2011 (crime-focuseddebate) • France: threatened to re-introduce border controls at the border to Italy in spring 2011 (migration-focuseddebate)

  5. Issue • Trust in the EU and its institutions • National security • Re-nationalisation • Domestic agendas: • showinggovernment is in control • Politicalactivism • Narratives reconstructing national identityboundaries

  6. France* • Influx of immigrants from North Africaafter the ”Arab Spring” • Preceivedlack of EU-support, burden-sharing • Pressure from the political far right • Politicalactivism – demonstratethatgovernment is in control *Scuzzarello/Kinnval 2013

  7. Denmark’s short reintroduction of ”permanent” border controls • Political compromise between the ruling minority government of the (Neo-) Liberals (Venstre) and the Conservatives with the right populist, anti-EU Danish People’s Party (The DPP was ‘bought’ with the border controls to support the retirement reform) • Permanent customs controls (not police), including electronic devices (plate scan) and new control stations • Should remain within the legal Schengen framework (legal experts say it did not) • Effective July – September 2011 (Change of Government to a center-left coalition)

  8. Core of the debate • Security aspect – cross-border crime • Special focus on gangs and violent robberies • Nørrebro drug-related gang wars (and other problematic areas in Danish cities) • The Skovby-case • Bike-thefts (here, funnily, Lithuanians were the main ”crooks” in the narrative) • The narrative of German dominance in the EU, after the German ambassador had criticized the Danish debate

  9. “Moral Panic” • Stanley Cohen (1972) • Mass media blows a case out of proportion to suppose a challenge to morality • Labour immigrant as folk devil (Pijpers, 2006) • But why ”East”? • I argue that the European ”East-West” discourse/conflict has roots in Orientalism (Saïd, 1978) as well as pan-Germanic, nazi and Cold War spatialisation concepts

  10. Skovby-case • 2 October 2008: a couple was robbed and severely injured in their home in Skovby near Århus by four Romanians, the 76 year old husband died in hospital because of the injuries • Wide media coverage

  11. Eastern gangs? • Danish Police: • Severe home invasion robberies stable around 20-30 pr. year in Denmark in the 2000’s (http://www.dkr.dk/hjemmer%C3%B8veri-2, 4 January 2013) • Mostly committed by ethnic Danes or legal residents

  12. Framing (Politicians’ narratives)* • ”Denmark is an Eldorado for foreigncriminals” (DPP) • ”Increasedcrime from Eastern European gangs” (Minister of Finance, Liberal Party) • ”Most of the int’lcrime … comes from … countries in the … Schengen area, such as Polish gangs” (DPP MEP) • ”Everyfifth charge wasagainst a person with East European nationality” (DPP MP) *Scuzzarello/Kinnval 2013

  13. The ”people’s” view • Poll in May 2011: • 54.1 % yes, 40.0 % no to more, permanently staffed border control • Poll in August 2011: • 73 %: Cross-border crime is a big problem for Denmark • 85 %: More European cooperation is the best solution to cross-border crime • 58 %: Reintroduction of border control is purely symbolic policy (”symbolpolitik”)

  14. Letters to the editor • Morgenavisen-Jyllandsposten (conservative), 1 May – 30 September 2011 • 10 against the reintroduction of permanent border control • 37 for, reasons (more than one possible) • ”Eastern gangs” and similar: 10 • Against German dominance or interference: 6 • Crime in general: 9 • Populist (”the people want it everywhere, only intellectual/political elite supports open borders”): 6 • EU centralism vs. nation state sovereignty: 6 • Other: 4

  15. Letters to the editor • JydskeVestkysten (regional monopolist, Southern Denmark), 1 May – 30 September 2011 • 27 against the reintroduction of permanent border control • 51 for, reasons (more than one possible) • ”Eastern gangs” and similar: 17 • Against German dominance or interference: 8 • Crime in general: 20 • Populist (”the people want it everywhere, only intellectual/political elite supports open borders”): 2 • EU centralism vs. nation state sovereignty: 9 • Other: 7

  16. Orientalism-colonialism in a wider sense? • Saïd – post-colonialism • (West)European image of the East as • Backwards • Corrupt • Uncivilized • Applicable to Central- and Eastern Europe? • Neo-colonialism • Transitory societies • EU-programs (Pre-Accession, Twinning, ENPI) • The German experience

  17. East-West discourses – a German phenomenon • 19th century phenomenon – 18th century travel literature is rather neutral, cultural-geographic (Struck 2007) • ”PolnischeWirtschaft” and ”Alldeutschentum” – German pejorative image of the “backwards” East combined with the nationalization project of the Kaiserreich – similar in the West: France and the French as decadent other • 20th century interwar narratives • Nazi race ideology • Post WW-II prejudices/images of cultural superiority – supported by the ideological Cold War conflict • But Denmark?

  18. ”Der måvære en grænse!”There has to be a limit/borderMay 1997

  19. Denmark joins Schengen, 1997 • Debate more academic: • Danish EU-exemptions (juridical cooperation) • Denmark and the Nordic countries • Refugees – Denmark becoming part of ‘Fortress Europe’, losing her safe-haven special status • No moral panic

  20. Conclusion • East-West cleavage not new – but not that old either in the European perspective • East-West cleavage is visible – beyond pure economic gap • Re-bordering is intra EU, as narratives, trust and distrust tend to mobilize re-bordering along ethnic national/nationalist frameworks • Still, a more rational discourse prevails • Principle of open borders not questioned in general by mainstream politics

  21. References • Cohen, Stanley (1972): Folk Devils and Moral Panics, New York: Routledge (3rd ed., 2002) • Pijpers, Roos (2006): ‘Help! The Poles are coming’: narrating a contemporary moral panic, GeografiskaAnnaler, 88 B (1), 91-103 • Saïd, Edward (1978): Orientalism, New York: Pantheon • Scuzzarelli, Sarah and CatarinaKinnvall(2013): Rebordering France and Denmark. Narratives and Practices of Border Construction in Two European Countries, Mobilities8:1, 90-106 • Struck, Bernhard (2007): VomoffenenRaumzumnationalenTerritorium. Wahrnehmung, Erfindung und Historizität von Grenzen in der deutschenReiseliteraturüberPolen und Frankreich um 1800, in: Francois, Seifarth and Struck (eds.): Die GrenzealsRaum, Erfahrung und Konstruktion, Frankfurt: Campus

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