Resistance or Acceptance? The Voice of Local Cross-Border Organizations in Times of Re-Bordering

Abstract

National borders in Europe are increasingly subject to re-bordering processes, including the external and internal borders of the European Union. This article asks if and how local cross-border organizations (Euroregions) have reacted to to the recent hardening of these borders. The Austrian-German border is one where border controls have been reintroduced in the wake of the 2015 refugee crisis, and which also has significant local crossborder institutional activity. Based on an analysis of 350 written items, published by six Euroregions during the five-year period 2015-2019, the article finds that the Euroregions have generally not voiced resistance to this development and have not been active in relation to the policy field of refugee or migrant inclusion. When they reacted, the resistance has mainly been embedded in an argumentation linked to instrumental concerns, such as the traffic situation, even though the research also demonstrated the existence of normative arguments related to human rights discourses and rights of migrants.

Challenging and Interlinking Quality of Life with Social Sustainability in European Cross-Border Suburban Regions: An Empirical Survey in Bratislava-Lower Austria and Burgenland, and Salzburg-Bavaria

“…Their territories were not separated by the rigid Iron Curtain, and their common political history as fellow members of the European Union and the Schengen Area is a bit longer-since 1995 and 1997, respectively. However, as Svensson [44] (p. 5) points out, due to the migration crisis in 2015, the German-Austrian border "was under high stress compared to other [internal] borders" of the Schengen Agreement. As a result, the border controls had to be reintroduced.…”