Moving Borders

- European border transformations in past and present


Presentation by Marie Sandberg, the Saxo Institute, followed by a plenary discussion

The EU’s response to the current European refugee crisis has primarily been to enforce its external borders using naval blockades and FRONTEX-led programs to push back migrants, even before they enter the European continent. The establishing of a controversial refugee quota system has been discussed among European leaders, and is now being implemented, however a common EU migration policy agreed upon by all EU member states has so far not been realized. Instead the individual states are enhancing controls at their inner EU borders, a tendency which has been inconceivable up until recently.

The presentation will take the current refugee crisis as a point of departure for discussing the role of borders in Europe using Polish working migration in past and present as a case in point.

The debate is in English. All are welcome. No registration.

Marie Sandberg is Associate Professor, PhD, in Ethnology at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen. She is a steering group member of Centre for Advanced Migration Studies (AMIS), University of Copenhagen and editor-in-chief of Ethnologia Europaea, Journal of European Ethnology.