Borders and their role in the world that we live in today

Isabelle Coughlan

  In an age of increasing globalisation, where many refer to the earth we inhabit as a ‘shrinking world’ due to how interconnected and accessible countries are to each other,  it’s easy to think that the borders that separate us on a map no longer exist, or play a huge part in shaping the world we live in today. However despite this assumed notion that we are arriving in an era where one big ‘global village’ is emerging, geographical borders are playing an even bigger role than one could have imagined in the political and social unrest that our world currently faces. Boundaries between countries, which originally have always been thought of as invisible lines drawn up by our ancestors (or colonialists- which is another story…), are now in the future even becoming manmade. An excellent example of which being the proposed $33bn wall between the USA and Mexico stopping, according to Donald Trump, Mexico from “sending people that have lots of problems”. Despite many people opposing this idea and Trumps’ ideologies, he is not alone in his sentiments towards immigration and people wanting to cross borders.  In fact, a staggering 36% of a country that has 325.7 million people, are in favour of the wall being built according to the Pew Research Centre. To further understand this divide between people and the worldwide issue with borders as a whole, political geography (the branch of geography that deals with the boundaries, divisions, and possessions of states) can be used as a way of realising the impact that segregation has on people and who serves to benefit and lose from it.

   All over the world more and more countries are closing off their borders in fear of the effects of increased immigration and loss of cultural identity, jobs, and houses.  Recently a big factor in people deciding to vote in favour of Brexit came from the promise of the Leave Campaign that ‘A vote for Leave will be a vote to cut immigration’. However these anti-immigration sentiments seemed to have fuel racially motivated attacks, with the Independent citing that “Hate-crime reports [have] rise[n] by almost a third ” in 2016. One incident included a 21 year old polish man, Bartosz Milewski, being attacked by a gang of thugs because they heard him speaking in his native language.

What is more, political parties such as UKIP have been accused of scaremongering the UK public after its leader Nigel Farage warned women that they could be at risk of sex attacks from migrants( following the mass sex attacks in Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve) if Britain stayed in the EU. Tactics such as this can lead countless Britons to question the impact of immigration with many stating that migrants not only take jobs from UK citizens who have more right to them, but are also putting a strain on healthcare services and the housing market. Moreover many people, especially of older generations, fear for the loss of British culture through the ever growing cultural diversity ascending on Britain. In their eyes, protecting our borders and making border controls even tighter could help curb the diversification in our society and the increasing cultural erosion that appears to be occurring in our country. This begs the question: is the desire to strengthen borders making our country more racist?

   In effect, the borders of the UK have never actually truly been open. In 1995 we opted out of the Schengen Agreement which abolished many of the EU's internal borders, enabling passport-free movement across most of Europe. The UK wanted to maintain its own borders, and Ireland  wanted to keep its free movement arrangement with the UK - called the Common Travel Area - rather than join Schengen. However in a time of the new European nationalism, terrorism and mass immigration, an agreement what was once thought to bring benefits and prosperity to Europe, is slowly starting to crumble.  Austria is now erecting a barbed wire fence on the border with fellow Schengen member Slovenia and from Bulgaria to Hungary, Macedonia to Croatia, fences are being built across central and southern Europe at a faster rate than ever. However it is not just Eastern Europe where this rush to regain control of borders is occurring. Sweden, usually renowned for being the most welcoming country in Europe for immigrants, has now re-erected ID checks and controls  on its border with Denmark. At the end of 2015, the newly elected nationalist government in Warsaw, Poland, reacting to the Paris terror attacks, announced it needed to take full control of its own borders. Germany, one of the 5 original members of the Schengen Agreement re-established border controls in September amid an unprecedented number of refugee arrivals, and France followed after the November Paris terror attacks. What was once a borderless main land Europe, is now in 2018, a very much separated continent.

One can’t help but wonder if countries that claim to only close off borders to protect their citizens, simply use that as a cover for their anti-immigration sentiments.  We as a world are becoming more untrusting in foreigners and thus as a result are turning out to be more divided than ever. How can we possibly say we are living in a borderless world when it is becoming harder to travel between countries or feel accepted in countries where we are not natives?

  Border disputes are not just an issue affecting the more developed countries. Eritrea, a country with a well known tumultuous past is still grappling with issues concerning its borders and surroundings countries. When the 30 year armed battle with Ethiopia ended after Eritrea gained independence in 1993 following a referendum, many thought peace would ensue. However disputes over border towns led to two years of war where a estimated 80,000 people were killed before it ended in 2000. Peace did eventually ensue after this era of bloodshed but underlying tensions still continued to simmer and ended in another spout of conflict in June 2016 where hundreds were reportedly killed. From this we can understand border issues are not always be fuelled by an anti-immigrant agenda. Disagreements over land which result in territorial disputes are evidence of the serious mistrust that can arise between the nations and people on each side of a border.

Ultimately borders appear to be playing an integral part in moulding the world we live in today but further study and understanding of them will prove vital in determining what kind of world we will become. While there is much uncertainty as to whether we will actually  find ourselves in a truly borderless world, one thing we know for sure is, at present, borders are constantly exhibiting their power over shaping cultural identity, creating divisions between people and countries and allowing the mobility of migrants, and may continue to do so for a long time.