Impact

What impact does the Schengen system have on border regions within the EU?

Each day, 3.5 million people in Europe cross internal borders to go to work, to study or for personal matters. Almost 2 million people reside in one Schengen country while working in another. Companies, on the other hand, recruit employees in other member states and new cross-border entrepreneurial structures arise. The free movement of people within the European Union has a significant impact on its population and particularly on those living in border regions.

37.5% of the EU population lives in border areas, along some 38 internal borders. Compared to national political and economic centres, border regions are often characterised by weaker infrastructure and public services. Therefore, their cross-border cooperation is considered particularly important.

The reduction of socio-spatial inequalities between European (border) regions is a long-standing goal. From a joint mountain observatory in the Pyrenées to the first European energy cooperative between Spain and Portugal, the European Union supports border regions’ cooperation. Its Interreg programme funds infrastructure projects, cooperation in the education sector, environmental protection, healthcare and more. Most cross-border public services projects are at the borders of the six founding EU Member States and the Nordic countries, while the highest density is at the Belgian-Dutch border, followed by the Austrian-German and French-German borders.

The European border regions differ significantly from one another, as Martin Guillermo Ramirez, Secretary General of the Association of European Border Regions, describes:

Even though the internal borders in Europe are very different, for all of them, the Schengen Agreement was an important change.

Everybody in border areas knows what Schengen means. (...) Because it was really a watershed in their lives.

Martin Guillermo Ramirez, Secretary General of the Association of European Border Regions

The abolition of internal border controls has meant an enormous increase in mobility, especially for people living in border regions within Europe. They often lead their everyday life on both sides of the border: people move around the border region to go to school or the public swimming pool, to visit a doctor or family members, or to go to work.

Cross-border public activities in the fields of culture and sport, organised by municipalities, European programmes or local associations, are intended to make the feeling of cohesion across national borders tangible. In recent years, however, Euroscepticism and a reduced sense of security have also spread among the population in some European border regions, for example with regard to cross-border crime (see the chapter on Challenges).

How does the cross-border labour market work?

With almost two million people commuting across the border every day or at least once a week, the national labour markets in the European Union are closely intertwined. Luxembourg has the highest percentage of EU movers relative to its total population (40%) and receives more than 222,000 cross-border commuters from neighbouring countries. In the EU, manufacturing remains the largest sector of work for movers, followed by construction, transportation and storage.

People working in other European countries - and their employers - still face a number of obstacles, such as the different social security, tax and legal systems within the European Union. The European Union is trying to tackle this through various measures and initiatives. Issues such as cross-border infrastructure, education and public services are crucial.

How does the Schengen Agreement affect cross-border regions with the European neighbourhood? The example of the border between Spain and Morocco

Schengen does not always make borders easier to cross. The changes that joining the Schengen Agreement has brought for the border regions between the European Union and neighbouring countries can be seen particularly clearly in the example of Spain and Morocco, where the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla form the only mainland borders with Africa.

Whereas travel between the two countries had previously been much more fluid, with Moroccans able to cross the border without a visa, the Schengen Agreement introduced a new visa requirement for Moroccans in 1991, resulting in a massive restriction on their freedom of movement and a tightening of border controls. By joining the agreement, Spain committed itself to controlling and closing its external borders - which then became the borders of the Schengen Area - more strictly than before (see the chapter on Enlargements).

As a result, Spain's external border was massively extended and fortified. Since the beginning, this has also been viewed critically. In 1992, Mariano Ortiz, the lieutenant colonel in charge of the Guardia Civil, said that they were aware of their responsibility for Europe, but ‘we can't rebuild the Berlin Wall here on the beach’.

Thirty years after the Schengen Agreement came into force in Spain, the fence built in Melilla is 12 kilometres long and up to 12 metres high. It consists of several parts and is flanked by motion detectors, thermal imaging cameras, floodlights, surveillance cameras and a ditch. Spanish police forces patrol the border.

Migrants repeatedly manage to overcome the fence, and many have lost their lives while trying. If they are caught by Spanish border guards, they are at risk of being sent back immediately. Research by local and international non-governmental organisations has revealed widespread pushback practices, in which individuals are not allowed to apply for asylum and which are often accompanied by severe abuse from Moroccan security forces.

Those who are not sent back directly can apply for asylum at the CETI temporary reception centre in Ceuta or Melilla and, if their application is accepted, they will be transferred from there to mainland Spain.

At the same time, there is a lively regular border traffic between the two countries. Thousands of cross-border workers, Transfronterizos, commute daily from Morocco to Ceuta and Melilla to work – mainly in the construction and domestic sectors. Strict regulations restrict their movements and prohibit access to the Spanish mainland. The cross-border practice has been severely affected by border closures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

See the video of a border crosser's experience:

The introduction of effective border controls and restrictive measures in migration management was a fundamental condition to be included into the Schengen Area. This strongly influenced policies and legislation in all acceding countries. It also made an impact on their respective external relations.

What is the impact of the Schengen Agreement on countries of origin and transit?

The Schengen Agreement has not only affected border regions within Europe and with neighbouring countries. It has also had an impact beyond these borders.

In recent years, European and African heads of state and government have held numerous summits in an effort to intensify their cooperation on migration and border control. The Rabat Process, the Khartoum Process, the Joint EU-Africa Strategy, the Valletta Summit on Migration, and the Samoa Agreement were central milestones. They have led to agreements and action plans to fight irregular migration, to improve cooperation on returns, to address the root causes of irregular migration, to enhance cooperation on legal migration or to reinforce the protection of migrants (see the chapter on Development).

The recent developments in Germany, in Sweden, in Slovenia, and in other countries all show with utmost clarity the huge pressure member states are facing. Saving Schengen is a race against time. And we are determined to win that race.

Donald Tusk, President of the European Council at the Valletta Summit on Migration in November 2015

We need to address the root causes in order to ensure that nobody is thinking of leaving their house. When you prefer to die in the desert instead of sleeping in your own warm bed, there must be a problem.

Ibrahim Ghandour, Foreign Minister of Sudan at the Valletta Summit on Migration in November 2015

Another aspect of the agreements between the European Union and African states is the increased European involvement in border controls on the African continent. This goes hand in hand with increasing immobility, i.e. restrictions on the freedom of movement of citizens of African states between and within African countries. The EU supports the technological upgrading of border posts and infrastructure and the training of border officials. It also provides substantial financial support, for example by fully financing the West African Police Information System (WAPIS).

African governments have ambivalent interests in regulating migration. While they are increasingly called upon to engage in international cooperation on migration governance, they also seek to ensure that such cooperation aligns with their broader political goals. In some cases, migration has been strategically used to support diplomatic objectives in other areas.

For example, Morocco has, at times, linked cooperation on return policies to its position in the Western Sahara dispute. Similarly, Libya and Tunisia often used collaboration in migration as an advantage to gain financial resources and political legitimacy from European countries. This is not limited to Africa. Turkey helped the European Union to contain migration from the Middle East in order to get money, soften the European visa regime for its citizens and even boost its EU accession prospects (see the chapter on Development). Belarus went as far as to encourage illegal migration influx into the European Union, the aims being to destabilise the EU, retaliate against its sanctions and induce it to change its overall approach to Minsk.

The European Union also pursues a comprehensive strategy in its engagement with African partners, aiming to integrate migration-related issues into a broader framework of international cooperation.

Migration is an important factor in the main foreign policy instruments adopted by the European Union, including the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, later the Union for the Mediterranean, and the European Neighbourhood Policy. More recently, the willingness to control migration flows and combat irregular migration and associated criminal activity became more and more connected with the Common Security and Defence Policy, especially in the Sahel region. The EU, in addition, is Africa's most important donor of official development assistance, the aim also being to address the economic root causes of irregular migration to Europe.

In countries of origin and transit, campaigns using social media, print, television, radio and billboards with frightening descriptions and images of migration routes and the lack of prospects in Europe are used to discourage irregular migration. In some cases, these campaigns are used to encourage people to return voluntarily. In recent years, they have been organised, for example, by Italy, Austria, or the European Commission, sometimes in cooperation with the African countries concerned.

Recently, the agreements with the EU, especially the cooperation on return, have led to an increase in domestic conflicts in African states such as Mali or Gambia. This is due to the importance of remittances, the lack of job opportunities for returnees in the country of origin, or the fear of the negative impact of some expelled criminals on public security.

Germany was my destiny. It was like I went to paradise, then I came back to the same situation and I had to start all over again.

Dembo Sanneh

The impact on people's lives has yet another dimension: European border policies - choices to tighten border controls and practices at external borders - influence migrants' decisions about movements. For example, increasing numbers of migrants are taking the more dangerous routes through the Sahara to avoid border controls between African states. Or they try to reach Europe via the Canary Islands when controls in the Mediterranean are expected to be tightened. Although Africa is the most affected continent outside Europe, Schengen and its restrictive approach to immigration also made an impact on perceptions and relations between the European Union, on the one hand, and the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, on the other.